Incidence of lumpy skin disease among Iraqi cattle in Waset Governorate, Iraq republic

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an economically devastating emerging viral disease of cattle. LSD is currently endemic in most of the Middle East region.The present study was conducted on 2906 cattle of different breed in Waset governorate in Iraq for a period extend from June-August 2014 . All suspected animals were clinically examined. Signs and symptoms included fever, depression, anorexia, excessive salivation, lacrimation, several days later nodules develop in the skin of muzzle, nares, back, legs, scrotum, perineum and udder, swelling of lymph nodules. About 10 days later the swelling nodules ruptured oozing fetid odor pus, joint affected in some animals causing recompancy of affected animals and making them an able to standing. The morbidity, mortality rates of LSD among examined Iraqi cattle were 8.6%, 2.8% respectively. Confirmation of lumpy skin virus diagnosis by polymerase chain reaction test (PCR), 17 lymph nodes biopsy and 17 blood samples has been taken. Extraction of DNA by using mini kit (Qiagen, Stanford, CA) 15 positive results for blood and lymph nodes samples while only 4 negative samples (2 blood and 2 lymph nodes samples).