Bluetongue is an infectious disease of ruminants. The etiological agent is Bluetongue virus that has double stranded RNA genome. Culicoides biting midges perform as a vector for virus spread. There are twenty seven bluetongue virus serotypes present in world. Bluetongue disease mainly affects sheep, goat, cattle, and camelids species. Bluetongue is a viral, non-contagious and infectious disease caused by a virus of the genus Orbivirus, transmitted by a hematophagous vector of genus Culicoides, to wild and domestic ruminants, primarily to sheep which is the most susceptible species. It is caused by link of endemic with climate conditions, with humidity and high temperatures. Economic loss is directly associated to abortion, loss of milk, death and meat production, weight loss and indirectly by restriction on export of the animals and their by-products. This article describes brief overview of bluetongue virus followed by its pathogenic potential and then its vector distribution and global epidemiology of its different serotypes.
Authors' Contribution MR conceived and designed the study. AAS and SF reviewed the study project for final approval. SI executed the experiments and analyzed the study results. AAS and AYS critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual contents and final version was approved by all authors.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.