Abstract
An outbreak of sheeppox was investigated in a cluster of villages situated in Western Himalayan ranges of a Northern Indian state. Non-migratory sheep (n = 80) of native breeds namely Gaddi and Rampur Bushair were infected and 15 have died. The outbreak started after a few animals contracted the disease during the summer grazing period at the highland pastures from migrating flocks of sheep. This initial outbreak resulted in a further spreading of the disease into the valley. Clinical examination revealed varying degree of cutaneous papular lesions and respiratory distress. Upon necropsy, visceral lesions in the lungs, trachea and kidneys were also found. Clinical and morbid samples were found positive for sheeppox virus using group specific P32 gene and I3L gene based multiplex PCR differentiating sheeppox and goatpox viruses. Histopathological, hematological and blood biochemical analysis also supported the pathology of an acute viral infection. The causative sheeppox virus strain was isolated using lamb testicular cell culture and phylogenetic analysis, based upon P32 and RPO30 genes, showed its clustering with other Indian strains reported from neighboring states. This study demonstrated the spread of sheeppox virus to new niches by migratory sheep flocks leading to establishment of endemic infections in many new pockets of higher Western Himalayas.
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The datasets in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. All data and materials are available for publication.
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The authors thankfully acknowledge the logistics provided by the field Veterinarians and other staff of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Himachal Pradesh.
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RC, PS, and RK performed the literature research and sample analysis. RC and TG designed the structure of the manuscript and wrote the paper. MS critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All work was done observing Biosafety Standards, enforced by the present Institution. Other animal ethics approvals were not required as samples were taken from diseased or dead animals or in-contact animals for disease investigation under emergent situation.
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11259_2021_9833_MOESM1_ESM.jpg
Supplementary file1 (JPG 48 kb) Fig. S1 PCR based detection of Capripoxvirus from various clinical and post-mortem samples based on P32 amplified 389bp fragment of genome (A); L1: 100bp ladder; L2: Nasal swab; L3: Skin scab; L4: Lung tissue; L5: Ocular swab; L6: Negative control; L7: SPPV positive control. SPPV was detected based on I3L gene-based PCR showing two bands of 131 bp and 296 bp (B); L1: 100bp ladder; L2: Nasal swab; L3: Skin scab; L4: Lung tissue; L5: Ocular swab; L6: Negative control; L7: SPPV positive control
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Chahota, R., Sharma, P., Kumar, R. et al. Investigation of an outbreak of sheeppox among native sheep breeds in the Western Himalayas of India. Vet Res Commun 46, 101–107 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-021-09833-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-021-09833-z