Capripoxvirus Diseases: Current Updates and Developed Strategies for Control

Abstract Capripoxviruses (CaPVs) are systemic infectious diseases of small ruminants, affecting the agricultural economy in endemic countries and representing a major constraint to international trade in livestock and their products. They cause fever, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, nodules, skin lesions developed into papules and then scabs. High morbidity and mortality rates are observed in affected sheep, goats, and cattle, depending on the virulence of strain, breed, host immunity, and environmental factors. CaPV diseases are notifiable to the World Organisation for Animal Health in many regions of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, along with the possibility of an incursion into Europe via the transportation of infected animals. They are now expanding their territory with recent outbreaks of sheep pox (SPPV) and goat pox (GTPV) in Vietnam, Greece, and Mongolia and new outbreaks of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in Ethiopia, Egypt, and Israel. The CaPV pathogenesis demonstrates that skin lesions and nasal and oral swabs are the most useful samples for virus isolation. The classical methods such as cell culture and electron microscopy can be used to identify the virus; however, these techniques cannot differentiate between sheep pox, goat pox, and lumpy skin disease. The polymerase chain reaction and sequencing are the most frequently analytical techniques used to provide a rapid and sensitive detection of CaPV. In this chapter, it will be necessary to update knowledge on CaPV diseases; their economic impact and losses, modes of transmission, clinical signs and symptoms and to outline the classical and developed diagnostic methods, and vaccination strategies for their control and eradication.