PONE-D-21-20980

Lumpy skin disease outbreaks in Egypt during 2017-2018 among sheeppox vaccinated cattle: Epidemiological, pathological, and molecular findings

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Rouby,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Many thanks for submitting your manuscript to PLOS One

It was reviewed by two experts in the field, and they have recommended some modifications be made prior to acceptance

I therefore invite you to make these changes and to write a response to reviewers which will expedite revision upon resubmission

I wish you the best of luck with your modifications

Hope you are keeping safe and well in these difficult times

Thanks

Simon

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors describe the substantial outbreak of LSD in SPPV-vaccinated cattle in Egypt.

In general, the manuscript is easy to read and the presented data support the conclusions. Nevertheless, some additional information would be improve the manuscript. If the according information are not available, it should be clearly stated out.

Major comments:

• In total, 1050 clinically affected cattle were screened, but it is not clear what susceptible cattle population is available in the Beni-Suef, Sohag and Aswan Governorates and how many of the cattle were vaccinated with the SPPV vaccine.

• Furthermore, it is not clear for me, at what time the SPPV vaccination was performed and how the vaccination procedure was recorded for each individual cattle.

• In this context, it would be helpful to know, how many of the verified SPPV vaccinated cattle produced an immunological response against the SPPV vaccine (humoral and/or cellular). If such data are not available for these cattle population, the authors should screen the literature for according data.

• It is not clear if the Egypt SPPV Romanian vaccine produce no immune response in cattle, in general. Alternatively, the heterologous immune response based on the SPPV vaccine could be not sufficient to protect for the LSDV infection. This problem should be discussed more intensive.

• An interesting study would be the analysis of the serological response after the SPV vaccination. Here, cattle from the field should be tested before and 6-8 weeks after vaccination to evaluate the rate of successful immunised cattle. But this experiment can be also the part of one of the next studies.

Minor comments:

• Page3, line 9: a dot after 4] is missing

• P3, l21: RPO-30

• P7, l12: RPO-30

• P7, l14: Fig. 4G is described here at the first time, thus the legend Fig. 4A would be better.

• P7, l18: Why only one of 10 PCR amplicons for the p32 sequence showed readable sequences. A confirmation of the p32 sequence for other LSDV-field strains from 2017/18 would be more robust for the conclusion.

Reviewer #2: This is a nice and interesting article which is simple to read and well presented which described LSDV in Egypt.

I have made a few comments- line numbers start from the first text line of the intro as there were none on the submitted manuscript.

It would be nice to know some figures for the areas- number of cows, % vaccinated etc, and how recent the vaccination was for the cattle.

Also, is it that the vaccination hasn’t produced a response? Or is it some other reason why the animal has become diseased?

A few minor comments are below.

Line 1- comma after devastating

Line 3- delete a

Line 6- reword to ..related to the genus ….

Line 24- I may be incorrect, but isn’t this the RPO-30? Please check throughout

Line 27 and 28- this is repetitive, please modify

Line 38- delete the second ‘of’

Line 63- please include full PCR reagents

Please ensure that all reagents have the manufacturer in the methods section

Line 77- remove brackets from dilution

Line 78- please define AP

P32 PCR- please include PCR reagents

Line 107- how were these samples chosen?

Line 117- please use similarities when not 100% identical

Line 148- comma after LSDV

Line 159-160= you don’t show this data- unless I missed it, and this is quite important

Not sure that figures 3 or 6 are needed but up to the authors

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Lumpy skin disease outbreaks in Egypt during 2017-2018 among sheeppox vaccinated cattle: Epidemiological, pathological, and molecular findings

PONE-D-21-20980R1

Dear Dr. Rouby,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Simon Clegg, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments:

Many thanks for resubmitting your manuscript to PLOS One

As you have addressed all the comments and the manuscript reads well, I have recommended it for publication

You should hear from the Editorial Office shortly.

It was a pleasure working with you and I wish you the best of luck for your future research

Hope you are keeping safe and well in these difficult times

Thanks

Simon