Epidemiological Study of Lumpy Skin Disease Outbreaks in North-western Iran

Abstract

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a highly contagious transboundary disease of cattle with major economic losses. This study was undertaken to address the emergence and epidemiological features of LSD in four north-western provinces of Iran. These provinces have extensive borders with others country including Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. A population of 683 cattle from 91 farms were examined during LSD outbreak in Iran during 2014-2016. The information of the farms including the population size, gender, age, vaccination status, clinical signs and the number of death because of LSD were recorded in the designed questionnaires. A number of 234 blood samples were collected randomly from animals with and without clinical signs of LSD. DNA was extracted from blood samples, and they were used for amplifying a fragment of 434 bp in size coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) for molecular detection of lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV). The estimated prevalence, cumulative mortality and case fatality were 17.9%, 3.5% and 19.7%, respectively. There was no significant difference in occurrence of the disease between male and female cattle. LSD occurrence in age groups above 5 years old and below 6 months old showed highest and lowest relative frequencies, respectively. Vaccination was significantly decreased the occurrence of clinical disease. The developed PCR-RFLP technique was able to differentiate between LSDV, sheep pox virus (ShPV) and goat pox virus (GPV). It was concluded that LSD was entered into Iran probably from Iraq via uncontrolled animal movements along common land borders between two countries. Developed PCR-RFLP could be used as a rapid and inexpensive method for differentiating Capripoxviruses (CaPVs).

Epizootic features and control measures for lumpy skin disease in south‐east Serbia in 2016

“…Lumpy skin disease is generally characterized by high morbidity (50%) and low mortality (<10%), with reported morbidity and mortality rates differing greatly (Coetzer & Tustin, ; Davies, ; Sevik & Dogan, ). According to reports from countries where the disease has emerged in the last few years, in south‐east Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Azerbaijan, the speed of spread, prevalence and mortality rate depend on the geographic location, climatic conditions, activity and numbers of vectors, method of livestock production, cattle breed and animal immune status on one hand and on the timely implementation of control measures on the other (Kasem et al, ; Sameea Yousefi, Mardani, Dalir‐Naghadeh, & Jalilzadeh‐Amin, ; Sevik & Dogan, ; Sprygin, Artyuchova, et al, ; Tasioudi et al, ; Zeynalova, Asadov, Guliyev, Vatani, & Aliyev, ). The average morbidity rate in the study area was 13.6%, with minimum of 4.1% (Pirot district) and maximum of 16.9% (Pcinja district).…”

Quantifying and modelling the acquisition and retention of lumpy skin disease virus by haematophagus insects reveals clinically but not subclinically-affected cattle are promoters of viral transmission and key targets for control of disease outbreaks

“…This attack rate of 0.37 is comparable to other experimental models with field strains of LSDV (0.57 27 and 0.50 32 ). Reports of animals with subclinical LSD in the field is sparse, with an incidence of up to 31.3% reported 3 . The high detection of subclinical infection in our study may be a result of an intense sampling protocol (compared to the limited sampling of individuals during an outbreak investigation).…”

“…LSD is characterised by fever, weight loss, and prominent multifocal necrotising cutaneous lesions 9 , and affect cattle of all ages 10 . Morbidity in disease outbreaks range from 5-26%, and mortality 0.03-2% [2][3][4][11][12][13] . Control measures include vaccination, quarantine and partial or complete culling of infected herds.…”

Untitled

“…9 Distribution of the disease in various agro climatic conditions, introduction of new animals to the herd and the presence water bodies are among the other risk factors also that would facilitate the spread of outbreaks in various localities. 31 The incidence of LSD occurrence is high during wet seasons when bitingfly populations are abundant and it decreases or ceases during the dry season. 14 Pathogen risk factor: LSDV is generally resistant to drying, survive freezing and thawing.…”

“…33 Mode of transmission: Though there was no clearly defined method of transmission of LSD but the circumstantial evidences suggestions that disease might be transmitted by biting insects. 31 And now are well-expressed the main mode of transmission of LSDV is via arthropod vectors whereas direct or indirect contact between infected and susceptible animals or using contaminated objects or materials by clinically sick animals is an inefficient method of transmission. Subsequently, the virus was isolated from arthropod vectors and the role of vectors in transmission of the virus as experimentally confirmed.…”