Metagenomic profiling of viral and microbial communities from the pox lesions of lumpy skin disease virus and sheeppox virus-infected hosts.

Introduction: It has been recognized that capripoxvirus infections have a strong cutaneous tropism with the manifestation of skin lesions in the form of nodules and scabs in the respective hosts, followed by necrosis and sloughing off. Considering that the skin microbiota is a complex community of commensal bacteria, fungi and viruses that are influenced by infections leading to pathological states, there is no evidence on how the skin microbiome is affected during capripoxvirus pathogenesis.

Methods: In this study, shotgun metagenomic sequencing was used to investigate the microbiome in pox lesions from hosts infected with lumpy skin disease virus and sheep pox virus.