A lumpy skin disease virus which underwent a recombination event demonstrates more aggressive growth in primary cells and cattle than the classical field isolate.

Genomic changes by recombination have been recently observed in lumpy skin disease viruses circulating in Russia. The first characterized naturally occurring recombinant lumpy skin disease virus Saratov/2017 occurred through recombination between a live attenuated virus vaccine and the Southern African lumpy skin disease virus. Understanding if recombination can increase or decrease virulence of viruses through changes in different gene regions is required to improve the understanding of capripoxvirus biology. In this study, the in vitro and in vivo growth of the recombinant Saratov/2017 and the classical field isolate Dagestan/2015 was compared. Primary lamb kidney and lamb testis cells as well as the goat ovarian cell line were used to assess virus replication. In the goat ovarian cell line, Saratov/2017 and Dagestan/2015 induced comparable cytopathic activity and virus titers. In contrast, in primary lamb kidney and lamb testis cells, Saratov/2017 grew more aggressively causing more massive rounding up of cells, detachment and agglomeration compared to Dagestan/20152015. Growth curves of Saratov/2017 and Dagestan/2015 were assessed in primary lamb testis cells using different multiplicities of infection (MOI), with Saratov/2017 demonstrating faster replication at the different MOI and time points evaluated post infection. In cattle, Saratov/2017 demonstrated more pronounced skin reactions when titrated by skin inoculation of serially diluted virus. In both primary cells and cattle, the titer of Saratov/2017 was significantly higher compared to Dagestan/2015 (p ≤ 0.05). These results demonstrate recombinant Saratov/2017 exhibits more aggressive replication properties.