Sero-prevalence study of bluetongue infection in sheep and goats in selected areas of Ethiopia

Abstract

Bluetongue is an infectious, a non-contagious, arthropod borne viral disease of
ruminants and has been reported from most of the tropical and subtropical regions
of the world. Seroprevalence study was carried from July, 2013 to January,
2015 to understand bluetongue virus infection in selected areas of sheep and
goats found in and around small ruminant breed improvement center. A total of
1420 sera samples from sheep and goats were collected and screened for the presence of group specific bluetongue virus antibody using competitive Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay(c-ELISA) with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 99%. The overall seroprevalence of bluetongue virus antibody was 69.01% and 60.53% in sheep and goats, respectively. Seroprevalence of bluetongue ranges from 14.5% (Adami Tulu Research Center) to 91.43 % (Benestemay). Antibody to bluetongue virus was detected from both sheep and goats in all study areas. Result of this study showed that small ruminant dwelling in and around the small ruminant
breed improvement centers are exposed to bluetongue virus. In the present study
areas there were no observation of clinical cases in any species of animals. This
indicates that local breed of animals are resistant to clinical disease of bluetongue
infection and or there may be circulation of mild virus strain in the population and
so further studies are required to determine the bluetongue serotypes that are
circulating in sheep and goats.

Keywords: Bluetongue Virus, ELISA, Seroprevalence, Sheep and Goats, Ethiopia