Molecular detection and occurrence of contagious ecthyma in goat

Contagious ecthyma or Orf is a common, contagious and zoonotic disease of small ruminants caused by orf virus. The present research was conducted to study the occurrence of Orf in goats in and around Parbhani district. Overall occurrence of Orf in goats was recorded 38.83% on the basis of PCR results. The higher occurrence of Orf recorded in the kids below 4 months of age, male, poor health status and non-descript goats. The clinical signs observed in Contagious Ecthyma affected goats were pyrexia, severe proliferative ulcerated cauliflower-like lesions around lips and scabby lesions were observed on the lips, muzzles, mucocutaneous junctions, nostrils, ear, inner aspect of thigh and gums. The hematological parameters revealed erythrocytopenia, anemia, leukocytosis, neutrophilia and lymphopenia. For molecular confirmation, DNA extraction of all scab samples collected from suspected goats and showed amplification of partial B2L gene at 592 bp by PCR. Analysis of DNA sequence revealed that three Parbhani sequences were positive for CEV. The obtained 3 sequences of orf virus got accession numbers PP235095, PP235096 and PP235097 were closely related with each other and with other strains obtained from GenBank for the Parbhani district, Maharashtra and strains of other states of India mainly with Meghalaya, Assam and Goa.