Candidate genomic regions associated with differential clinical response to lumpy skin disease in sahiwal cattle

Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is a transboundary viral disease of cattle associated with substantial economic losses. During an LSD outbreak at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Sahiwal cattle maintained at the institute and vaccinated with a live attenuated goatpox vaccine exhibited considerable variation in disease response. Based on clinical presentation, animals were classified into clinically affected (G1) and clinically non-affected (G2) groups. This study represents a preliminary investigation aimed at exploring genomic variants associated with differential disease response. Whole-genome sequencing was performed to identify variants linked to clinical outcome.Genome-wide allelic association analysis identified 160 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) representing putative SNPs differentiating the two groups. clinically affected animals, SNPs rs30477737 and rs26324422 mapped to regions containing ZSCAN26 and PGBD1, respectively, whereas in clinically non-affected animals, SNP rs43160202 was located near PHACTR1, GFOD1, TBC1D7, and SIRT5. These genes are implicated in transcriptional regulation, intracellular signaling, metabolic processes, and cellular stress responses. The identified genomic regions provide a foundation for future functional validation and may contribute to a better understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying variation in host immune response to LSD in cattle.