Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) causes lumpy skin disease in cattle and buffaloes, which is associated with significant animal production and economic losses. Since the 2000s, LSDV has spread from Africa to several countries in the Middle East; Europe; and Asia; including, more recently, several south-east Asian countries. In November 2020, Myanmar reported its first LSD outbreak. This study reports on the first incursion of LSD in Myanmar and the molecular analysis of the LSDV detected. Staff from the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation collected samples from cattle with suspected LSD infection. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations’ Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) and the Joint International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)/FAO program’s Animal Health and Production laboratory provided LSDV diagnostic support to two regional veterinary diagnostic laboratories in Myanmar. Samples from 13 cattle tested positive by real-time PCR. Selected samples underwent sequence analysis in IAEA laboratories. The results show that the Myanmar LSDV sequences clustered with LSDV isolates from Bangladesh and India, LSDV Kenya, and LSDV NI-2490. Further characterization showed that the Myanmar LSDV is 100% identical to isolates from Bangladesh and India, implying a common source of introduction. These findings inform diagnosis and development of control strategies.

Ferrihydrite and green rust (GR) have been identified as promising removing agents for chromate. However, while ferrihydrite efficiency is the still too low for practical applications, it is not known whether GR is stable in real wastewater systems. In this work, we investigated the removal of chromate from a real tannery wastewater by using sulfate-GR and ferrihydrite. We studied the effect of pH and Cr/Fe molar ratios on removal performances and elucidated the removal mechanism by XRD analysis. We performed removal experiments from simple chromate-bearing solutions under non-oxidizing Ar atmosphere, and from complex solution under open air atmosphere.