Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) is an emerging poxviral pathogen of cattle that is currently spreading throughout Asia. The disease situation is of high importance for farmers and policy makers in Asia. In October 2020, feral cattle in Hong Kong developed multi‐focal cutaneous nodules consistent with lumpy skin disease (LSD). Gross and histological pathology further supported the diagnosis and samples were sent to the OIE Reference Laboratory at The Pirbright Institute for confirmatory testing. LSDV was detected using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and additional molecular analyses. This is the first report of LSD in Hong Kong. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of the strain LSDV/Hong Kong/2020 and phylogenetic analysis were carried out in order to identify connections to previous outbreaks of LSD, and better understand the drivers of LSDV emergence. Analysis of the 90 core poxvirus genes revealed LSDV/Hong Kong/2020 was a novel strain most closely related to the live‐attenuated Neethling vaccine strains of LSDV and more distantly related to wildtype LSDV isolates from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Analysis of the more variable regions located towards the termini of the poxvirus genome revealed genes in LSDV/Hong Kong/2020 with different patterns of grouping when compared to previously published wildtype and vaccine strains of LSDV. This work reveals that the LSD outbreak in Hong Kong in 2020 was caused by a different strain of LSDV than the LSD epidemic in the Middle East and Europe in 2015–2018. The use of WGS is highly recommended when investigating LSDV disease outbreaks.

In the light of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, we have developed a porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV) model for in depth mechanistic evaluation of the pathogenesis, virology and immune responses of this important family of viruses. Pigs are a large animal with similar physiology and immunology to humans and are a natural host for PRCV. Four PRCV strains were investigated and shown to induce different degrees of lung pathology. Importantly, although all four strains replicated equally well in porcine cell lines in vitro and in the upper respiratory tract in vivo, PRCV strains causing more severe lung pathology were also able to replicate in ex vivo tracheal organ cultures as well as in vivo in the trachea and lung. The time course of infection of PRCV 135, which caused the most severe pulmonary pathology, was investigated. Virus was shed from the upper respiratory tract until day 10 post infection, with infection of the respiratory mucosa, as well as olfactory and sustentacular cells, providing an excellent model to study upper respiratory tract disease in addition to the commonly known lower respiratory tract disease from PRCV. Infected animals made antibody and T cell responses that cross reacted with the four PRCV strains and Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus. The antibody response was reproduced in vitro in organ cultures. Comparison of mechanisms of infection and immune control in pigs infected with PRCVs of differing pathogenicity with human data from SARS-CoV-2 infection and from our in vitro organ cultures, will enable key events in coronavirus infection and disease pathogenesis to be identified.

Leptospirosis is an endemic zoonotic disease in Brazil and is widespread throughout rural populations in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This study aimed to identify presumptive infecting Leptospira serogroups in human and animal cases and describe their occurrences within the ecoregions of the state by animal species. Data for human and animal leptospirosis cases were gathered from the government’s passive surveillance systems and presumptive infecting serogroups were identified based on a two-fold titer difference in serogroups in the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) panel. A total of 22 different serogroups were reported across both human and animal cases. Serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae was the most common among humans, while serogroup Sejroe predominated among animal cases, particularly bovines. Each ecoregion had a large distribution of cases, with 51% of the human cases in the Parana–Paraiba ecoregion, and 81% of the animal cases in the Savannah ecoregion. Identifying and mapping the serogroups circulating using the One Health approach is the first step for further understanding the distribution of the disease in the state. This study has the potential to aid in guiding public health and agricultural practices, furthering the need for a human vaccine in high-risk populations to complement control and prevention efforts.

Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) is an emerging poxviral pathogen of cattle that is currently spreading throughout Asia. The disease situation is of high importance for farmers and policy makers in Asia. In October 2020, feral cattle in Hong Kong developed multifocal cutaneous nodules consistent with lumpy skin disease (LSD). Gross and histological pathology further supported the diagnosis and samples were sent to the OIE Reference Laboratory at The Pirbright Institute for confirmatory testing. LSDV was detected using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and additional molecular analyses. This is the first report of LSD in Hong Kong. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of the strain LSDV/HongKong/2020 and phylogenetic analysis were carried out in order to identify connections to previous outbreaks of LSD, and better understand the drivers of LSDV emergence. Analysis of the 90 core poxvirus genes revealed LSDV/HongKong/2020 was a novel strain most closely related to the live-attenuated Neethling vaccine strains of LSDV and more distantly related to wildtype LSDV isolates from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Analysis of the more variable regions located towards the termini of the poxvirus genome revealed genes in LSDV/HongKong/2020 with different patterns of grouping when compared to previously published wildtype and vaccine strains of LSDV. This work reveals that the LSD outbreak in Hong Kong in 2020 was caused by a different strain of LSDV than the LSD epidemic in the Middle East and Europe in 2015-2018. The use of WGS is highly recommended when investigating LSDV disease outbreaks.

During 2022, outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) were reported across the islands of Indonesia, a country that had previously maintained an FMD-free (without vaccination) status since 1990. This report describes the near-complete genome sequence of a representative FMD virus collected from these cases belonging to the O/ME-SA/Ind-2001e lineage.