In August 2019, lumpy skin disease occurred for the first time in Xinjiang, China, and then quickly spread to many provinces in China. Here, the virus was isolated from the skin scabs of affected cattle during June 2020 in Guangdong, China. Virus isolation, transmission electron microscopy and polymerase chain reaction identified lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) in the skin crusts of sick cattle. For the isolation of LSDV, the most sensitive cell line is primary cattle testicular (PCT) cells, while Vero cells cannot be used for the isolation of LSDV. In addition, we evaluated the growth characteristics of LSDV in vitro. Compared with MDBK and Vero cells, LSDV produced higher virus titters in PCT cells at 72 h. Phylogenetic analysis based on second-generation sequencing of the LSDV whole genome showed that the isolated virus (LSDV/MZGD/2020) is closely related to Asian strains and formed a new branch. LSDV/MZGD/2020 is also a vaccine recombinant strain that is distinct from the recombinant strain found in Russia. Through Recombination Detection Program (RDP), Simplot and phylogenetic analyses, strong evidence for recombination events was found in Chinese field LSDV strains. The China LSDV/MZGD/2020 strain may be the result of multiple recombination events between the Neethling 2490 and Neethling vaccine LW 1959 strains. This study expands our knowledge of the genetic diversity and evolution of LSDV.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a widespread, gram-negative, pathogenic bacterium that causes serious internal and external infections in humans and other animals. The increasing antibiotic resistance has complicated bacterial infection treatment, and current antibiotic therapies cannot cure all infections. Owing to this, bacteriophages (phages) have regained attention as potential therapeutics for bacterial infections. In this study, the phage “PaVOA” was isolated from hospital sewage and characterized. Next, a New Zealand rabbit skin infection model was used to determine the therapeutic efficacy of PaVOA as compared to a phage cocktail or the cephalosporin antibiotic ceftriaxone. Characterization results demonstrated that phage PaVOA belongs to the Myoviridae family, has a double-stranded DNA genome, is resistant to low temperatures (−20°C), is most optimal at 40°C, has good acid–base tolerance, and remains stable for 30 min under 20 W ultraviolet (UV) intensity. The optimal multiplicity of infection of PaVOA was 0.1, and a one-step growth curve showed a short latency period (10 min), thus demonstrating its ability to rapidly kill bacteria. Furthermore, the addition of calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) ions significantly increased the PaVOA titer. An in vivo phage kinetic curve showed that PaVOA was rapidly inactivated within the blood of New Zealand rabbits (undetectable after 12 h), and no animals died due to phage treatment. Wound healing studies showed that the phage cocktail induced a high healing rate and an acceleration of the skin remodeling process, and was more efficacious than ceftriaxone. Therefore, phage cocktail therapy represents a novel therapeutic approach in the treatment of traumatic skin infections caused by multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa.