Molecular characterization of a novel Camelus dromedarius papillomavirus

•Papillomavirus CdPV1 and a novel papillomavirus (tentatively named as CdPV3) were detected in Camelus dromedarius.•Phylogenetic analyses indicated that both CdPV1 and CdPV3 belong to type 6 of genus Deltapapillomavirus in the family Papillomaviridae.•The novel camel papillomavirus CdPV3 is reported in Egypt for the first time.•L1 gene of MT130100/CdPV3/ Egypt/2018 showed only 68.99% nt identity with the closest genome HQ912791/CdPV2/Sudan/2009.•L1 gene of MT130101/CdPV1/Egypt/2018 showed 98.92% nt identity with the closest genome HQ912790/CdPV1/Sudan/2009. Papillomaviruses affect both human and non-human hosts. In camels, papillomatosis is caused by Camelus dromedarius papillomavirus type 1 and 2 (CdPV1 and CdPV2, respectively). In late 2018, an outbreak of camelpox occurred in a herd of fattening camels in Egypt. Several animals were found to be co-infected with camelpox and camel papillomaviruses. The morbidity with papillomatosis was 35 %. The infection was confirmed by PCR then Illumina sequencing revealed the presence of a complete genome of two CdPVs. One of these was CdPV1 (MT130101) and the other was a putative novel virus, tentatively named as CdPV3 (MT130100). Seven ORFs and a long upstream regulatory region were identified in the genomes of both viruses. Pairwise comparisons of L1 gene revealed 98.92 % nt identity between MT130101/CdPV1/Egypt/2018 and HQ912790/CdPV1/Sudan/2009 with 100 % coverage. However, MT130100/CdPV3/ Egypt/2018 showed only 68.99 % nt identity with the closest genome HQ912791/CdPV2/Sudan/2009. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that CdPV1 and CdPV3 belonged to the genus Deltapapillomavirus. These results should be useful for future CdPVs molecular surveillance and construction of evolutionary characteristics of this virus.