Orf disease in local goat; clinical and phylogenetic study in Al-Qadisiyah governorate, Iraq

Abstract

This study aimed to diagnose orf virus ORFV from infected goats in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate of Iraq, using polymerase chain reaction and construction of phylogenetic tree. Clinical examination was made on 400 goats in different herds and crusty scabs were collected from forty infected goats. All scabs were subjected to (PCR), sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis involving the presence of GIF gene GM-CSF inhibitor factor, a characteristic gene of the ORFV. The typical proliferative skin lesion with overall orf prevalence results by PCR was 10% with low mortality rates and high significance variation with age and gender. Two positive PCR amplicons were sent for partial-gene-based sequencing and Phylogenetic analysis. Multiple alignments of sequences presented close identities with two Iraqi global isolates of the virus. This study didn't only report novel sequences from the local orf virus isolates, but it also provides important data about transmission of local sheep orf virus into local goat during closely rearing and grazing and orf outbreak in small ruminant in Iraq might be suspected.