07/08/2022
Lumpy skin disease (L*D)
Lumpy skin disease is a viral infection of cattle. Originally found in Africa, it has also spread to countries in the Middle East, Asia, and eastern Europe. Clinical signs include fever, lacrimation, hypersalivation, and characteristic skin eruptions. Diagnosis is by histopathology, virus isolation, or PCR. Attenuated vaccines may help control outbreaks.
Lumpy skin disease is an infectious, eruptive, occasionally fatal disease of cattle characterized by nodules on the skin and other parts of the body. Secondary bacterial infection often aggravates the condition. Traditionally, lumpy skin disease is found in southern and eastern Africa, but in the 1970s it extended northwest through the continent into subSaharan west Africa. Since 2000, it has spread to several countries of the Middle East and in 2013 extended west into Turkey and several countries in the Balkans. More recently, outbreaks of lumpy skin disease were reported for the first time in Georgia, Russia, Bangladesh, and the People's Republic of China. The recent geographic spread of lumpy skin disease has caused international concern. The disease has not been recorded in the Western hemisphere or in Australia or New Zealand.
Etiology and Epidemiology of Lumpy Skin Disease in Cattle
The causal virus is related to that of sheeppox. Lumpy skin disease appears epidemically or sporadically. Frequently, new foci of infection appear in areas far removed from the initial outbreak. Its incidence is highest in wet summer weather, but it may occur in winter. It is most prevalent along water courses and on low ground. Because quarantine restrictions designed to limit the spread of infection often fail, biting insects have been suspected as mechanical vectors; however, outbreaks have occurred under conditions in which insects practically could be excluded. Experimentally, three species of hard ticks found in Africa have been shown to biologically transmit the virus. Because the disease can be ex