Eighteen sheep have died due to the outbreak of Sheep Pox Virus (SPV) in Surendranagar since August 21. This comes as the state battles an outbreak of lumpy skin disease (LSD).
Both LSD and SPV are viruses of the capripoxvirus genus.
However, government officers claimed they have managed to keep the outbreak limited to one herd of whom 38 sheep have contracted the virus, and 18 have died.
Officers of the state animal husbandry department said a team of veterinarians visited Himmatpura village in Dasada taluka on August 22 after media reports emerged of sheep falling ill en masse.
“Some illness was reported in a herd of 145 sheep in Himmatpura on August 21. So, our team visited the village the following day. The team found that eight sheep had fallen ill and two of them had died. Symptoms suggest the sheep had contracted the sheep pox virus and not goatpoxvirus that causes lumpy skin disease,” Falguni Thakar, director of animal husbandry (DoAH) of Gujarat, said.
The officer said that samples of infected sheep were sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) for laboratory tests. The samples returned positive for SPV.
“Our team started giving treatment to the infected animals while advising the herdsman to segregate other sheep. But later on, 30 fresh infections were reported. However, all of the infections were from the same herd. As a precautionary measure, we have vaccinated 2,283 sheep found in the radius of 15 km. There has been no fresh infection reported among the herd since September 3,” Thakar further said.
The DoAH said healthy sheep have been given doses of SPV vaccine to give the small ruminants protection against the viral disease that spreads through vectors like houseflies, mosquitos, ticks as well as through direct contact.
“The outbreak of sheep pox virus is not new. Isolated outbreaks are reported from the state on and off. But there is a vaccine for this virus and therefore, we have been able to tackle such outbreaks. The situation is under control,” Thakar added.
Pravin Kanjariya, deputy director of animal husbandry in Surendranagar, said the herdsman whose flock has been affected lives in an isolated place. “He keeps his herd in isolated places. Maybe, that has helped in containing the spread of the virus,” said Kanjariya,
He added that by “noticing nodules on the sheep’s body parts like mouth, legs etc, we prima facie concluded that the sheep had contracted SPV.”
Kanjariya said that an SPV outbreak was reported in Morbi last year but that too was controlled.
