Three thousand five hundred years of sheeppox virus evolution inferred from archaeological and codicological genomes

Sheeppox virus (SPPV) is a major livestock pathogen causing economic hardship through reduced production and death of vulnerable sheep, with written descriptions of sheeppox-like disease recorded since antiquity. We report 21 novel ancient SPPV genomes spanning the Eurasian steppe Bronze Age (similar to 1700 BCE) to the Early Modern period in Western Europe, including multiple genomes obtained from medieval parchment. We estimate that major capripoxvirus lineages diverged similar to 11,500 to 3700 years ago, overlapping known translocations and bio-cultural developments in sheep. Our dataset supports SPPV diverging first within the lineage leading to goatpox virus and lumpy skin disease virus, and that known gene inactivation events within SPPV and goatpox virus occur in our earliest SPPV genomes. These findings reveal that the food security of Eurasian communities has been threatened by sheeppox for more than 3700 years and provide insights into the genomic evolution and potential host adaptation of SPPV.

Altai State University
Trinity College Dublin
University of Haifa
York University
Newcastle University
Max-Planck-Institut für Infektionsbiologie
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald
University of Edinburgh
University of Copenhagen
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
University of Leicester
Donau-Universität Krems-Universität für Weiterbildung Krems
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
The Pirbright institute
Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Royal Danish Library
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung
University of East Anglia
University of London
University College Dublin
KU Leuven
Yale University