Scientific Opinion on lumpy skin disease
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Author
Berg, Charlotte
Bøtner, Anette
Browman, Howard
De Koeijer, Aline
Depner, Klaus
Domingo, Mariano
Ducrot, Christian
Edwards, Sandra
Fourichon, Christine
Koenen, Frank
More, Simon
Raj, Mohan
Sihvonen, Liisa
Spoolder, Hans
Stegeman, Jan Arend
Thulke, Hans-Hermann
Vågsholm, Ivar
Willeberg, Preben
Zientara, Stéphan
Publication date
2015-01-13ISSN
1831-4732
Abstract
Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a viral disease of cattle characterised by severe losses, especially in naive animals. LSD is endemic in many African and Asian countries, and it is rapidly spreading throughout the Middle East, including Turkey. LSD is transmitted by mechanical vectors, but direct/indirect transmission may occur. The disease would mainly be transferred to infection-free areas by transport of infected animals and vectors. In the EU, it could only happen through illegal transport of animals. The risk for that depends on the prevalence in the country of origin and the number of animals illegally moved. Based on a model to simulate LSD spread between farms, culling animals with generalised clinical signs seems to be sufficient to contain 90 % of epidemics around the initial site of incursion, but the remaining 10 % of simulated epidemics can spread up to 400 km from the site of introduction by six months after incursion. Whole-herd culling of infected farms substantially reduces the spread of LSD virus, and the more rapidly farms are detected and culled, the greater the magnitude of the reduction is. Only live attenuated vaccines against LSD are available. Homologous vaccines are more effective than sheep pox strain vaccines. The safety of the vaccines should be improved and the development of vaccines for differentiating between infected and vaccinated animals is recommended. Epidemics are not self-limiting when effective vaccination or culling are not applied. Active surveillance, rapid detection and prompt culling of infected herds are effective measures for LSD control. The role of vectors for LSD transmission should be further investigated in both controlled environments and the field. Awareness-raising campaigns for farmers and veterinary staff to promote recognition of LSD should be considered. The cooperation of the EU with neighbouring countries should be encouraged to prevent transboundary disease spread.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
636 - Animal husbandry and breeding in general. Livestock rearing. Breeding of domestic animals
Pages
73
Publisher
Wiley Open Access
Is part of
EFSA Journal
Citation
Berg, Charlotte, Anette Bøtner, Howard Browman, Aline De Koeijer, Klaus Depner, Mariano Domingo, and Christian Ducrot et al. 2015. “Scientific Opinion on lumpy skin disease”. EFSA Journal 2015 13(1):3986. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2015.3986
Program
Benestar Animal
Sanitat Animal
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2555]
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