Characterization of the camel pox virus strain used in producing camel pox virus vaccine

BACKGROUND: The camel pox virus (CMLV) is a widespread infectious viral disease of camels. It is necessary to conduct research on new strains for the development of vaccines. AIM: The research aims to characterize a novel strain isolated from the CMLV used to produce a CMLV vaccine. METHODS: The objects of the study were the “M-0001” strain isolated from a sample of animals infected with the CMLV during the epidemic. The cultural and reproductive properties of the virus isolate were studied using primary cell lines from primary trypsinized lamb kidney and testicular cell cultures (LK and LT). Other samples included kidney cell lines from transplanted sheep as well as a kidney cell line from transplanted cattle, Vero (transplanted green monkey kidney cell line), and calf trachea. The strain was polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-tested and sequenced for characterization purposes. RESULTS: The PCR results show that the study sample is species specific and corresponds to the CMLV by the size of the cumulative amplifications, which is 241 bp. Given the maximum percentage of a sequence match analyzed by the BLAST algorithm based on the international database and the results of phylogenetic analysis, the M0001 sample was determined to belong to the CMLV (gene bank inventory number KP768318.1). CONCLUSION: The sample “M0001” is located on the same branch with a representative from CMLV. Among the cell cultures tested, the LK and LT cell lines were the most sensitive to the isolated CMLV isolate. Reproducing the virus in these cell cultures remains stable even after 15 consecutive passes. The cytopathic effect of the virus was less pronounced and low in transplanted cell lines, and the cytopathic effect was no longer apparent in the third passage. A genome alignment of the virus has identified potentially conserved sites, and analysis of loci in different virus types revealed one maximally conserved locus. An epizootic strain of the camelina virus “M-0001” candidate to produce vaccines for the camels was obtained. An experimental vaccine sample based on an isolated and charred camellia virus will be created in the future.