Molecular Characterization of Orf virus in Goats from Eastern Türkiye

Orf virus (ORFV) is the etiologic agent of infectious ecthyma, a common worldwide disease that occasionally causes zoonotic infections. In this study, molecular characterization of ORFV was performed using a nucleic acid-based PCR technique with goat ORFV-positive samples obtained from different regions of Türkiye. In this context, skin lesion samples collected during the ORFV outbreak between 2022 and 2024 were included in the analysis. First, ORFV isolates detected as positive by real-time PCR were analyzed with specific primers targeting three different gene regions of ORFV (F1L, B2L, VIR). The relevant gene regions were then subjected to sequence analysis. The genetic relatedness and divergence of ORFV-positive samples relative to other strains/isolates in the GenBank database were determined using phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetic analysis of partial F1L, B2L, and VIR gene sequences of the Turkish ORFV strains isolated in this study revealed nucleotide sequence homology, with similarities ranging from 96.57% to 98.14% among the isolates and from 95.63% to 99.48% when compared with other strains/isolates. According to the results, Turkish isolates showed a high degree of genetic similarity with strains from China, India, Iran, Malaysia, United States, and Taiwan. According to these findings, ORFV strains circulating in Türkiye display close phylogenetic clustering with strains reported from Asia and other regions, and phylogenetic analyses are considered a valuable tool for investigating disease origin and monitoring outbreaks.