Swinepox Outbreak in an Organized Piggery Farm in Punjab.

Abstract

Swinepox is a highly contagious, acute disease affecting domestic pigs and wild hogs, often allied with poor management and unsanitary conditions. The disease can occur at any time, but is more prevalent in areas with suboptimal hygiene practices. Diagnosis is primarily based on the presence of characteristic gross pock lesions on the skin, while histopathological examination reveals distinctive intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies within affected cells. The present study investigated an outbreak of swinepox virus (SWPV) in 2024 at an organized pig farm in Punjab, India. Histopathological examination of lesions revealed the hallmark intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies in prickle cells. This study aimed to analyze the genetic epidemiology of the SWPV associated with this outbreak. For molecular analysis, nucleic acid amplification was performed using the Polymerase Chain Reaction. DNA was extracted using the Qiagen kit following the standard protocol. Specific primers targeting ORF-01 and ORF-120 genes were used, and the amplified PCR products were validated through Sanger sequencing. Sequence analysis revealed unique nucleotide and amino acid signatures in the Indian SWPV sequences, which clustered into a distinct Indian lineage clade. In contrast, reference sequences from European-North American lineages formed a separate clade in the phylogenetic tree. All clinical samples exhibited very high genetic similarity, suggesting the outbreak likely originated from a single source.