Drastic cutaneous multi-focal orf infection in goats, causing severe dysfunctioning

A flock of 76 goats was struck by orf infection at the Al-Ahsa oasis in eastern Saudi Arabia. The morbidity rate was 89%, while the case fatality rate was 3%. The clinical signs were most severe in three adult goats, which survived, and in two kids, which died of the infection. The lesions were multi-focal and so serious that they prevented the infected goats from seeing, eating, lactating or walking. The virus was isolated in Vero cell culture and a scab suspension was used to experimentally infect susceptible goats. These newly infected animals suffered only mild disease but the orf virus was re-isolated and the goats seroconverted. To the best knowledge of the authors, these were the most drastic orf lesions seen during the last 17 years in goats in Saudi Arabia.