Lumpy skin disease epidemiological report IV: data collection and analysis

Abstract

In 2019, no lumpy skin disease (LSD) outbreaks were reported in South‐Eastern Europe, the mass vaccination regional campaign with homologous LSD vaccine continued for the fourth year with over 1.8 million bovines vaccinated in the region, preventing further outbreaks since 2016. LSD outbreaks were reported in Turkey, including western Turkey, in Russia and in eastern Asia affecting China, Bangladesh and India for the first time. The use of homologous vaccine should be considered in the countries still affected in order to eliminate the virus. Besides passive surveillance, which is implemented in all the countries, active surveillance for early detection based on clinical examination could be conducted ideally during April–October every 5 weeks in at‐risk areas, based on possible re‐emergence or re‐introduction from affected neighbouring countries. Active surveillance for proving disease freedom could be based on serological testing (enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)) targeting 3.5% seroprevalence and conducted on a random sample of cattle herds on non‐vaccinated animals. LSD re‐emerged in Israel in 2019, after vaccination became voluntary. This shows that, if the virus is still circulating in the region, the reduced protection might result in re‐emergence of LSD. In case of re‐emergence, a contingency plan and vaccine stockpiling would be needed, in order to react quickly. From a study performed in Israel to test side effects of live‐attenuated homologous LSD vaccine, milk production can be reduced during 7 days after vaccination (around 6–8 kg per cow), without a significant loss in the 30 days after vaccination. Research needs should be focused on the probability of transmission from insect to bovine, the virus inactivation rate in insects, the collection of baseline entomological data, the capacity of vector species in LSDV transmission linked to studies on their abundance and the control of Stomoxys calcitrans being the most important vector in LSD transmission.

Genetic Evidence of Multiple Introductions of Lumpy Skin Disease Virus into Saratov Region, Russia

“…Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), the causative agent of lumpy skin disease (LSD) is known as one of the three species, namely LSDV, sheeppox virus (SPPV) and goatpox virus (GTPV) in the genus Capripoxvirus (CapPVs) within the Poxviridae family [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The LSDV is a relatively large, double-stranded DNA enveloped virus with a genome of 151-kbp that contains 156 putative genes sharing 97% nucleotide identity with the genomes of two other CapPVs, SPPV and GTPV [7,11].…”

“…From there, the infection dramatically spread, first, to most parts of Africa, and then through the Middle East and further to a number of countries in the European and Asian part of the Eurasian continent [1,6]. Since 2016, LSD outbreaks have been registered in many countries of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe such as Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan, followed by a spread to a few new countries of East Asia, namely China, Bangladesh and India [1,10,18,19]. Despite the fact that LSD is considered to be a global emerging worldwide threat in Europe, the Middle East and Asia [5,6,10], it is a vaccine-controlled disease.…”

“…Homologous vaccines are mostly based on the LSDV Neethling strain isolated in South Africa in 1950s. Their efficacy was proven by the absence of any LSD outbreaks in Southeastern Europe after the annual mass vaccination of cattle in all affected countries during the last three years [1]. Heterologous vaccines were generally developed with the use of either SPPV or GTPV strains such as Yugoslavian RM-65 and Romanian SPPV strains etc.…”

“…Heterologous vaccines were generally developed with the use of either SPPV or GTPV strains such as Yugoslavian RM-65 and Romanian SPPV strains etc. [1,20]. Theoretically, this type of vaccine could provide protective immunity against all CapPVs-related infections, including LSD.…”

“…Since 2017 in the Russian Federation herds have been actively immunized with live heterologous vaccines against LSD based on sheep pox vaccine strain (SPPV vaccine) in the affected regions with 80-100% coverage in the vaccinated area [1]. There is total annual vaccination of all cattle in the Russian regions with a marked level of LSD morbidity, especially if the territory borders with countries in which LSD cases were reported or LSDV was detected either in the past or at present.…”