Epidemiology, clinical features, and molecular detection of orf virus in Haryana (India) and its adjoining areas

Abstract

Orf is an acute, highly contagious, and economically important viral disease of small ruminants. In this study, six orf suspected outbreaks among goats and sheep were investigated from Haryana state and adjoining areas of Rajasthan state during the year 2021. The disease was diagnosed on the basis of clinical signs and molecular identification. The causative agent of the disease, orf virus (ORFV), was confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting immunodominant envelope antigen (B2L) gene and confirmed by sequencing. The morbidity in goats ranged from 8.75 to 100%, whereas in sheep, it ranged from 0 to 8%. The higher mortality was observed among flocks with mixed infections of orf and peste des petits (PPR) or orf and haemonchosis as compared to other outbreaks. The phylogenetic analysis of sequenced PCR products clustered the current study strains in the same clad with Indian as well as strains from other countries with nucleotide identity more than 99%, signifying a close genetic relationship. The study highlighted the circulation of strains of a single cluster among sheep and goats in Haryana and adjoining areas. Prompt diagnosis of the disease is highly important for facilitating the implementation of control measures to minimize the losses suffered by small and marginal farmers in this region. Further detailed studies are required to delineate the molecular details of ORFV for better understanding the dynamics and molecular epidemiology of strains circulating in the country and for designing the effective vaccines against the disease which are currently lacking in the country.

Alterations in Haematological and Biochemical Parameters in Sokoto Red Goats Infected with Orf Virus: A Case Report

“…While the increase in red blood cell and haemoglobin concentration indicates polycythaemia due to dehydration in diseased goats. Alterations in Reference values [12] haematological parameters have been reported previously, and were linked to inflammatory response to CE, secondary bacterial infection and stress [18,19]. Serum biochemical changes have been associated with Orf virus infection [8]; however, the present case did not show remarkable findings.…”

Genetic Analysis of Orf Virus (ORFV) Strains Isolated from Goats in China: Insights into Epidemiological Characteristics and Evolutionary Patterns

“…For decades, the diversity of ORFV genes has been studied using PCR, sequencing and phylogenetic analysis in numerous countries ( Olivero et al., 2018 ; Wang et al., 2019 ; Kumar et al., 2022 ; Shehata et al., 2022 ). Understanding the evolutionary origin and molecular epidemiology of ORFV is critical for controlling or even eradicating this pathogen.…”

An evaluation of the ecological niche of Orf virus (Poxviridae): Challenges of distinguishing broad niches from no niches

“…Climatic data layers (19 bioclimatic variables at 10’ spatial resolution or ~17 km) were downloaded from the WorldClim version 2 database [ 43 ]. Although a temporal mismatch exists between the climatic data layers (averaged over the period 1970–2000) and the reporting time frames of Orf cases in our dataset (1971–2021), we retained the occurrence records from after 2000 for two reasons: long-term and persistent presence of Orf virus in the environment [ 4 , 23 , 44 ], and high resilience of Orf virus to environmental degradation [ 45 ]. Four layers (mean temperature of wettest quarter, mean temperature of driest quarter, precipitation of warmest quarter, precipitation of coldest quarter) were removed owing to known spatial artifacts associated with those data layers [ 46 ].…”