An outbreak of a disease in camels with skin lesions was reported in Israel during 2016. To identify the etiological agent of this illness, we employed a multidisciplinary diagnostic approach. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of lesion material revealed the presence of an orthopox-like virus, based on its characteristic brick shape. The virus from the skin lesions successfully infected chorioallantoic membranes and induced cytopathic effect in Vero cells, which were subsequently positively stained by an orthopox-specific antibody. The definite identification of the virus was accomplished by two independent qPCR, one of which was developed in this study, followed by sequencing of several regions of the viral genome. The qPCR and sequencing results confirmed the presence of camelpox virus (CMLV), and indicated that it is different from the previously annotated CMLV sequence available from GenBank. This is the first reported case of CMLV in Israel, and the first description of the isolated CMLV subtype.
Keywords: Immunofluorescence assay (IFA); PCR; camelpox virus; chorioallantoic membrane; orthopoxvirus; transmission electron microscopy.