Persistence and Stability of the Virus

Abstract

Lumpy skin disease virus is a stable virus which can be inactivated by temperature at 55 °C for 2 h, 60 °C for 1 h or 65 °C for 30 min (OIE 2016). The virus is stable for extended periods of time for at least 10 years in skin lesions that are frozen at −80 °C. Freezing and thawing LSDV will reduce the virus titre slightly (Haig 1957). Lumpy skin disease virus is susceptible to high alkaline or acid pH, although it is stable between pH 6.6 and 8.6 (Weiss 1968). It can be inactivated by (20%) chloroform, (1%) formalin, and detergents such as sodium dodecyl sulphate and detergents containing lipid solvents. Also phenol 2% in 15 min, sodium hypochlorite 2%–3%, iodine compounds (1:33) dilution, Virkon® (2%) and quaternary ammonium compounds (0.5%) can be used as disinfectant. Lumpy skin disease virus can be inactivated by ultraviolet light. Due to the sensitivity to sunlight, lumpy skin disease vaccines should be manufactured in dark glass bottles. Lumpy skin disease virus is viable for 35 days at 28 °C in the phosphate buffered saline (Tuppurainen et al. 2015).