Covid today in Italy, a mix of Omicron 1 and 2 (BA.1 / BA.2) has been identified in Veneto, different from both Xe and Xj. The first Omicron 1-2 chimera virus, found in the Region, “was sequenced by the Genetics, Cytogenetics and Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory of the Angelo Hospital in Mestre in a sample, taken from a patient in the province of Venice in March 2022 “. “It was, then, a team effort between the working groups of the Mestre hospital of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of the Venezie (IzsVe) and of the Higher Institute of Health to confirm, through bioinformatic analyzes, the recombination event “, reports IzsVe underlining that,” following this first identification, at the beginning of April 2022 two other cases attributable to the same virus were detected in the provinces of Venice and Padua “. “The analysis of the genetic sequence of this recombinant in a global context – details the Zooprophylactic – revealed that the virus is similar to the recombinants named Xj initially identified in Northern Europe, although it differs from these viruses for some characteristic mutations (one in the protein Orf1a, two in Orf1b, one in Spike protein, two in Orf8). The recombinant identified through regional surveillance is “also” different from variant Xe, responsible for more than 1,000 cases in the UK. – in the Venetian recombinant the first half of the genome belongs to the BA.1 variant and the second half to the BA.2 variant, while in the Xe variant the BA.2 portion is more extensive and represents about 60% of the genome “. “The phenotypic characteristics of the recombinant identified in Veneto are not known – specify from the IzsVe – because to date it has been characterized only genetically and the continuous genetic surveillance will be strategic to understand the possible spread of the virus in the regional territory”.