In recent years, novel Bluetongue virus (BTV) serotypes have been isolated and/or sequenced by researchers within the field. During Bluetongue surveillance activities, we identified a putative novel BTV serotype in healthy goats from Sardinia, Italy. RNAs purified from blood and serum samples were positive for BTV by a generic real time RT-PCR and c-ELISA, respectively, whereas genotyping and serotyping were unsuccessful. By NGS, the whole genome sequence was obtained from two blood samples (BTV-X ITL2015 strains 34200 and 33531). Overall, Seg 2 of BTV-X ITL2015 shows the highest identity (75.3-75.5% nt/77.4-78.1% aa) with recently isolated BTV-27s from Corsica and with the last discovered BTV XJ1407 from China (75.9% nt /78.2% aa), whereas it is less related with BTV-25 from Switzerland (73.0% nt/75.0% aa) and BTV-26 from Kuwait (62.0% nt/60.5% aa). A specific RT-qPCR targeting Seg 2 of BTV-X ITL2015 was assessed in this study. Considering the Seg 2/VP2 identity of BTV-X ITL2015 with BTV-25, 26, 27s and BTV XJ1407 and that serum of BTV-X ITL2015 infected goats failed to neutralize all tested extant serotypes, we propose the existence of a novel BTV serotype circulating in goats in Sardinia. Isolation was so far unsuccessful thus hampering proper antigenic characterization.

The current pandemic is caused by a novel coronavirus (CoV) called SARS-CoV-2 (species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus, genus Betacoronavirus, family Coronaviridae). In Italy, up to the 2nd of April 2020, overall 139,422 confirmed cases and 17,669 deaths have been notified, while 26,491 people have recovered. Besides the overloading of hospitals, another issue to face was the capacity to perform thousands of tests per day. In this perspective, to support the National Health Care System and to minimize the impact of this rapidly spreading virus, the Italian Ministry of Health involved the Istituti Zooprofilattici Sperimentali (IZSs), Veterinary Public Health Institutes, in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 by testing human samples. The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise is currently testing more than 600 samples per day and performing whole genome sequencing from positive samples. Sequence analysis of these samples suggested that different viral variants may be circulating in Italy, and so in Abruzzo region. CoVs, and related diseases, are well known to veterinarians since decades. The experience that veterinarians operating within the Public Health system gained in the control and characterization of previous health issues of livestock and poultry including avian flu, bluetongue, foot and mouth disease, responsible for huge economic losses, is certainly of great help to minimize the impact of this global crisis.