A rare case of human infection with Orf virus in China, 2024

Orf virus is a globally distributed zoonotic pathogen that mainly infects sheep and goats, although cases of human infection have been occasionally reported. In this study, we reported a rare case of human infection with Orf virus in China. A 66-year-old shepherd in Jining City of Shandong Province, China, presented to the hospital with multiple purulent nodules on his right arm, left wrist, and jaw that had developed over the last 8 days. About 20 days before admission, he had come into direct contact with infected sheep. Infection with the Orf virus was diagnosed based on amplification and analysis of the viral B2L gene, which exhibited the highest nucleotide identity (99.46%) to an Orf virus strain from Russia but was relatively distant from other Orf strains from China. The F1L gene was also recovered, although it had lower identity (98.71%) to the China strains. Our results imply that clinicians in China need to stay alert for Orf infection in humans to ensure accurate and prompt diagnosis, especially in endemic areas.