Data and geographical trend of Salmonella serovars infecting poultry in Malaysia is limited. In this study, the trend of Salmonella serovars infection was presented for the past ten years from 2011 to 2020 and the predominant serovars were mapped based on geographical distribution. Analysis of passive surveillance data demonstrated a shift of Salmonella serovars that infected poultry in Malaysia. The Salmonella serovars varied within ten years of registered cases with the Veterinary Research Institute, Ipoh, Malaysia involving samples from live and dead birds. Total number of cases found from the year 2011 to 2020 were 391 cases, involving 73 Salmonella serovars with an additional one group of unclassified serovars known as Salmonella spp. Further analysis revealed that eight serovars were found predominant throughout the ten-year period. These included S. Albany, S. Braenderup, S. Brancaster, S. Corvallis, S. Enteritidis, S. Kentucky, S. Typhimurium and S. Weltevreden. Salmonella spp. (Salmonella that is incapable to be identified based on serotyping) were also one of the major groups observed throughout the years. This study could help the authorities to improvise policies for better disease control programs through the establishment of diagnostic tools for rapid Salmonella screening in poultry.
African swine fever (ASF), a severe and highly contagious haemorrhagic viral disease of pigs, is becoming a major threat not only in Malaysia but around the world. The first confirmed case of ASF in Malaysia was reported in February 2021. Despite the emergence of ASF in Malaysia, genetic information on this causative pathogen for the local livestock is still limited. This study aimed to genetically characterize the African swine fever virus (ASFV) responsible for the 2021 outbreak in Malaysia. The genome of the ASFV isolated during the first outbreak in Malaysia was analysed as ASFV/Sabah/Malaysia/1160/21 which has 190,594 base pairs, with a nitrogenous bases (GC) content of 40.33% and 195 predicted Open Reading Frames (ORF). The complete genome sequence was compared with other annotated ASFV genomes retrieved from database of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to obtain information based on target gene B646L, E183L, intergenic region (IGR) between I73R and I329L (IGRI73R-I329L), EP402R and B602L. The ASFV/Sabah/Malaysia/1160/21 genome had a high similarity percentage to the reference genome, Georgia 2007 and all Southeast Asian strains. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the ASFV strain belonged to genotype II, serogroup 8, CVR1 and showed high characteristics of IGR variant II based on IGRI73R-I329L. This study expands our understanding of genetic diversity and provides significant insights into the genomic characteristics and variation of ASFV strains that are circulating in Malaysia.