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Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Research
Research Article
*Corre sponding a uthor
Seroepidemiology of Goat Pox
Disease in District Layyah,
Punjab, Pakistan
Abstract
Goat pox is an endemic disease all over the world and goat pox virus (GTPV) is
the causative agent of disease. This disease has signiicant issues in livestock industry in
terms of morbidity and mortality which ranges from 70-90% and 5-10%, respectively.
Along with this, goat pox has impact on the international trade by putting the restriction
on import and export of affected animals and their byproducts. Due to importance of
disease current study was planned to determine the sero-prevalence and associated
risk factors of disease among the small holders of goats in district Layyah, Punjab
Pakistan. Thirty herds were included in this study from the different tehsils of district and
a total of eighty seven blood samples were collected. Serum was harvested and single
radial hemolysis test was performed to assess the sero-prevalence. A questionnaire
was designed to determine the associated risk factors of the disease. The results of this
study showed that disease was more in female (18.36%) than male animals (15.78%).
Similarly breed wise results showed that disease was more in Daira-Din-Panah (DDP)
(22.72%) followed by Beetal (20%) Teddy (14.28) and Nachi (10.52%) breeds of
goat. As for as age of the animals is concerned the disease was more in young animals
(25%) than adults (12%). It was also observed that 33.33% disease was in nomadic
herds and 10% in settled herds.
INTRODUCTION
Pakistan is an agricultural country and agriculture sector
plays an important role in the economy of state. There are lot of
sub-sectors in agriculture sector, including crop section, fisheries,
forestry and livestock. Among these, livestock is an important
contributor, accounting for about 11.8% share to GDP. Livestock
includes the cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats. Among these goats
are important animal and considered as poor man’s cow. Goats
were the first animals domesticated by the mankind about 9000
years ago. ‘Wild goats’ and ‘Bezoar’ is the ancestor of recently
domesticated goats [1].
Goats are found in all parts of world, this is due to their
adaptability to varying conditions of environment and different
feed regime, under which these animals evolve and maintain
themselves. The current world population of goats in 2008 was
861.9 million heads. Highest number of these animals is found in
Asian continent. Pakistan is 3rd biggest country regarding goat’s
population after china and India having 66.6 million heads. While
Pakistan is at 4th position in goat’s milk and mutton producing
Ac c e pte d: 04 Fe b rua ry 2016
Publishe d: 05 Fe b rua ry 2016
ISSN: 2378-931X
Copyrig ht
OPEN ACCESS
Institute of microbiology, University of agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan
DDP: Daira- Din- Panah; SRH: Single Radial Hemolysis
Submitte d: 23 De c e mb e r 2015
© 2016 Ma so ud e t a l.
Faisal Masoud*, Muhammad shahid mahmood and Iftikhar
Hussain
ABBREVIATIONS
Fa isa l Ma so ud , Institute o f Mic ro b io lo g y, Unive rsity o f
Ag ric ulture Fa isa la b a d . Pa kista n, Te l: 92-332-7191863;
Ema il:
Ke ywords
• Go at
• Po x
• Se ro -p re va le nc e
• Se ro e p id e mio lo g y
countries with annual production of 822 thousand tons of milk
and 657 thousand tons of meat, respectively [2].
Dairy goats are important species in reducing the poverty and
economic development of the poor in the developing countries.
There are several reasons which makes the goats attractive for
these purposes including i.e require very small capital to start,
easily handled by the women and children, occupy less space,
require less nutrients and non-competitive behavior of food with
mankind etc. Due to these reasons their number is increasing
round the globe and they play important role in economy of
country. Same thing was observed in Pakistan where goats uplift
the income of small farmers. Goat population has increased from
63.1 to 66.6 million heads during 2011 to 2014, while gross
production of milk increased from 779 to 822 thousand tons and
goat skin increased from 24,237 to 25,664 numbers during this
period [3].
Like other animal species goat’s population is also threatened
by a number of health hazards, which include infectious,
metabolic and reproductive disorders. One of important
infectious disease is goat pox [4].The effect of goat pox appears in
terms of mortality, reduced productivity and under quality wool
and leather. This disease constitutes a major hindrance to the
Cite this article: Masoud F, Mahmood MS, Hussain I (2016) Seroepidemiology of Goat Pox Disease in District Layyah, Punjab, Pakistan. J Vet Med Res 3(1):
1043.
Masoud et al. (2016)
Email:
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intensive rearing of goats and sheep [5]. Goat pox is major threat
to introduction of new breeds in endemic areas, because it is
reported that mortality goes to very high in young and unaffected
animals. It also hampers the international trade by putting the
restriction on the export and import of susceptible animals as
well as their by-products [6].Goat pox is a contagious disease and
office of the international epizooties listed it in group ‘A’ diseases
Keeping in view the importance of this disease, the present
study was designed to gain an insight about the associated risk
factors and seroprevalence of the disease.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present study was designed in district Layyah Punjab,
Pakistan. The whole district is divided into three tehsils named,
Layyah, Choubara and Karor. Sampling unit in this study was a
fore mentioned administrative area of district layyah. Blood
Samples were collected from the animal by using 5ml sterile
syringes. A total of eighty seven samples were collected from
thirty herds of goats. These herds have different production
systems i.e Settled and Nomadic. Collection of samples and then
harvesting of serum was done by adopting the standard protocol
described by the OIE terrestrial manual [7].
Along with the collection of samples, observations were
recorded on the questionnaire to determine the risk factors
associated with spread of disease. The proforma was comprised
of questions some related to herd status of animals, some due to
production system and some related to individual animal. Then
the serum was harvested from the blood samples and brought
to microbiology lab, Institute of Microbiology, University of
Agriculture Faisalabad. The entire serum sample were heated at
56ºC for 30 minutes in a water bath to inactivate the Complement,
non-specific antibodies and non- specific agglutinins, so that to
avoid the false positive results.
A cell culture based live attenuated vaccine of goat pox
(Gorjian strain) was procured from the Veterinary Research
Institute (VRI), Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The antigen was
prepared by adding the 100ml of normal saline to freeze dried
virus. Guinea pig serum of good hemolytic titer was used as
complement. Finally the processing of samples was done with
Single radial hemolysis (SRH) as described by [8].
First of all 1% agarose gel was prepared in physiological
saline.It was cooled to the 40ºC then 1.2 ml of the GTPV coated
sheep RBCs were added then 1.2 ml of complement with good
hemolytic titer was added in the medium. Then medium was
poured on the glass slides. After this sterilized filter paper discs of
6mm size were taken. These disks were soaked in the inactivated
serum. A 6mm Whatman’s filter paper no.1 disc absorb the 35 µl
of serum. These disks were placed on the glass slides containing
the agarose gel at equal distances. These plates were incubated
for the overnight at 37ºC with humidified condition. Then zone
of hemolysis was observed on the next day around the positive
sera. Data collected was analyzed by the chi-square test for
independence.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Sero-Prevalence
Out of 87 goat samples, 15 samples show
J Vet Med Res 3(1): 1043 (2016)
positive results
through Single radial hemolysis (SRH) hence the overall seroprevalence recorded was 17.24%. The animals were declared
positive on the basis results of this test. The characteristics pox
lesions were also observed on the oral commissure, hairless areas
like ears, under side of the tail, slight coughing and diarrhea.
Gender Based Sero-prevalence
When the data was analyzed gender wise it was observed
that disease was more in female 18.36% than male 15.7%
(Table 1). The probability of the chi-square test statistic was
(chi-square=88.798) and p=0.001, which is less than the alpha
level of significance of 0.05.This tells us that there is statistically
significant association between gender and disease condition by
SRH and support our research hypothesis.
Breed based sero-prevalence
Different breeds of goats included in the study were Teddy,
Beetal, Nachi and DDP. Disease was more in DDP (22.72%)
followed by Beetal (20%), Teddy (14.28%) and Nachi (10.52%)
(Table 2). The value of the chi-square test was (chi square=98.501)
and p=0.001, which is less than the alpha level of significance of
0.05. This shows that there is statistically significant association.
Age based sero-prevalence
The comparison of sero-prevalence of goat pox disease in
different age groups of goats show the high sero-prevalence of
disease in young animals (3-10 months) than in adult animals
(11-24 months and above). In the young animals (3-10 months)
the sero-prevalence was 25% and in adult animals (11-24 months
and above) it was 12.72 % (Table 3). Similarly the value chisquare test statistic was 89.725 and ‘p’ value was 0.004, which is
less than the alpha level of significance 0.05.
Table 1: Gender based seroprevalence.
Gender
No. of sample tested
SRH positive
Disease %
Male
38
6
15.78
Female
49
9
18.36
Abbreviations: SRH: Single Radial Hemolysis test
Table 2: Breed based seroprevalence.
Breed
No. of sample
tested
No. of positive by SRH
Teddy
21
3
Disease %
Beetal
25
5
20
Nachi
19
2
10.52
DDP
22
5
22.72
14.28
Abbreviations: SRH: Single Radial Hemolysis test, DDP (Daira Din
Panah) ,Teddy, Beetaland Nachi are breeds of goat
Table 3: Age based seroprevalence.
Age group in Months
No. of
samples
SRH Positive
Disease %
3-10 months (Young)
32
8
25
57
7
12.72
11-24 months and above
(Adult)
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Table 4: Production system based seroprevalence.
Production
system
No. sample
tested
No. of positive
Disease %
Settled
60
6
10
Nomadism
27
9
33.33
Production system based sero-prevalence
Sero-prevalence of disease by the with respect to production
system by SRH was more in nomadic herds (33.33%) and less in
settled herds (10%) (Table 4). The probability of the chi-square
test statistic was (chi-square=142.659) and p=0.005, which is
less than the alpha level of significance of 0.05. This tells us that
there is statistically significant association between production
system and disease condition by SRH and support our research
hypothesis.
DISCUSSION
The pox infection is a common ailment of sheep, goats and
cattle round the world and causes huge economic losses to
the small ruminant farming community, leather industry and
national GDP. The infection of this disease in Pakistan mostly
seen in the goats and sheep while less in the cattle. One of
important pox infection is goat pox disease caused by goat pox
virus (GTPV) which belongs to capripox genus of Poxviridae
family This disease causes high morbidity and mortality in small
ruminants due to which it is categorized in list ‘A’ by the office de
international epizooties (OIE) [1].
Pox infection is a highly contagious, host specific and
show more infection in particular gender of animals. As this
fact was revealed in the study conducted by the selvaraju and
Balasubramaniam, [9] in India among the sheep flocks. The
observation made during that study shows that morbidity,
mortality and case fatality rates were 16.53%, 3.24% and
19.66% in male and 5.94%, 2.30% and 38.78% in female sheep
respectively. Similarly in the current study disease percentage
in female was 18.36% and 15.78 in male by the SRH. Higher
frequencies of disease in female may be attributed to the
physiological stress during pregnancy and lactation as stated by
Elshafie and Ali, [10].
The pox infection is some time more in one breed of
species than the other one. Roy et al., [11] investigated sheep
pox outbreaks in Madras red and Mechery breed of sheep in
Tamilnadu, India. Morbidity overall ranged from 46.66% to 75%
and Mortality ranged from 2.66% to 37.5%. In the Madras Red
breed, overall mortality was 20-28.57% while in Mechery breed
sheep it goes upto (50%). Similarly when the results of current
study were analyzed with respect to breed then results were in
agreement with the above mentioned results. It was observed
that disease was more in Daira- din Panah (DDP) (22.72%),
followed by Beetal (20%), Teddy (14.28%) and Nachi (10.52%)
when the samples were analyzed by the SRH test. The more
disease in one breed supports the finding of Mondal et al., [12]
that the goat pox is more severe in non-indigenous breeds than
indigenous one. Beside the breed susceptibility possible reason
for more mortality rate may be involvement of a more virulent
strain of virus which results in severe attack of disease.
J Vet Med Res 3(1): 1043 (2016)
One of the important factors which determine the severity
of goat pox infection is the age of susceptible animal Elshafie and
Ali, [10] conducted a participatory epidemiology study in Kassala
state of Sudan among the sheep flocks. The collected 502 serum
samples from the different localities of the state. Out of these
63.55% were positive for the Antibodies against the sheep pox.
However a higher prevalence rate of SP was observed in the age
group less than one year (65.63%, n= 233). The results of present
study also reflected the same image about the disease pattern,
that prevalence of disease was more in young animals (25%)
followed by adult animals (12.72%) when the samples were
analyzed by SRH. Possible reason for the more disease in young
animals may be linked with less development of immune system
in the animals.
Jindal et al., [13] conducted the study in the outbreaks of
sheep pox in Haryana state of India. This data was analyzed by
the spatial and temporal distribution. In the results of spatial
distribution it was noticed that migratory herds of sheep form
Rajhistan to Haryana state is the major factor in spread of disease.
These findings were confirmed during this study when results
showed that disease was up to 33.33% in nomadic herds and
10% in the settled herds. One of the obvious factors involved in
the spread of disease is that the common grazing areas and water
sources for carrier animals and healthy one. Other reason for
this fact is the throwing of carcass in open area without proper
disposal which is the source for the spread of disease.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study showed that disease was more in
female (18.36%) than male animals (15.78%). Similarly breed
wise results showed that disease was more in Daira-Din-Panah
(DDP) (22.72%) followed by Beetal (20%) Teddy (14.28) and
Nachi (10.52%) breeds of goat. As for as age of the animals is
concerned the disease was more in young animals (25%) than
adults (12%). It was also observed that 33.33% disease was in
nomadic herds and 10% in settled herds. After conducting the
study we reach to a point that the major factor in the spread of
the disease was movement of nomadic peoples along with their
animals in different areas. It can be controlled by the carpet
vaccination at the entry point and damping down vaccination in
the endemic areas. Similarly a bivalent vaccine of capripox can
give good results.
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Cite this article
Masoud F, Mahmood MS, Hussain I (2016) Seroepidemiology of Goat Pox Disease in District Layyah, Punjab, Pakistan. J Vet Med Res 3(1): 1043.
J Vet Med Res 3(1): 1043 (2016)
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