Mixed infection of peste-des-petits ruminants and Capripox in goats in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

Objective: We aimed at determining the prevalence and characterizing the CaPV, determining the CaPV - PPRV coinfection prevalence and providing data about phylogenetic relationship betwee n the fusion protein of PPRV and P32 gene of CaPV. Materials and m ethods: A total of 150 samples including animals swabs , tissues and blood were collected from unvaccinated goats in a PPR and/or Capripox outbreaks in South Kivu, Eastern of Democratic Rep u blic of the Congo. Conventional PCR and reverse transcriptase (RT - PCR) were used respectively to amplify P32, RPO30, GPCR genes of Capripox virus and Fusion (F) protein of PPRV. Positive samples were sequenced for phylogenetic analysis. Results: Out of 1 50 tested animals, 64 .7% ( n= 97/150) were PPRV positive , 52.7% ( n= 79/150) were Capripox positive and 38.7% ( n= 58/150) were positive for both PPRV and CaPV. The pairwise comparison of P32 gene of CaPV and F gene of PPRV showed 99.75% of identity percentage a mong goatpox virus sequences, 96.95% among PPRV sequences and 47.91% between CaPV and PPRV sequences . Conclusion: The study has demonstrated high prevalence of CaP V - PPRV mixed infection in South Kivu. Lumpy skin virus disease (LSVD) is a lineage circulating which has a genetic relationship between its P32 gene and the F gene of PPRV giving the challenge to differentiate the two diseases at the clinical farm level.