A Pox different from Chicken Pox

I have heard about chicken pox before, but not about goat or sheep pox. While it may be strange to me, it may not be strange to several others who know about it.

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For the sake of people like me who may not know of it, let's check it out and see what it is about. Sheep and goat pox is a viral, and highly contagious disease. We can abbreviate sheep and goat pox to SGP for easy description in the context of this article.

SGP is distributed widely distributed in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It affects several little ruminants kept mainly by subsistence farmers. SGP creates short and long-term economic impacts on subsistence farmers, especially in low-income earning countries.

Goat pox and sheep pox belong to the poxviridae family, and genus capripoxvirus. Initially, it was thought that the same strain of virus affects both situations, but over time, it has been discovered that they are different but closely related viruses.

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While some strains can infect bothep and goats, others are host-specific.
The economic loss of SGP is associated with, limited production of milk, damage to the quality of skin produced, low-quality wool, international trade ban, and other associated production losses.

Amongst the existing African nations, Ethiopia is believed to be the one with the largest African nation with a population of sheep and goats exceeding 49 million, this number is registered as the largest population of small ruminants in Africa.

The clinical signs displayed by affected ruminants are usually more severe amongst younger animals than older ones. Depression, lack of appetite, discharge from the eyes and nose, fever, red spots that turn to blisters, and death eventually.

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Transmission is possible either through a direct or indirect route. The direct contact could be through respiratory droplets, while the indirect droplets could be through vectors and contaminated environments.

There is currently no specific treatment for the disease, but antibiotics are prescribed to help treat secondary bacterial infection, good nursing care is also recommended for the affected animal to help prevent complications and reduce morbidity.

The vaccine uses attenuated capripox, which can help prevent these viruses from existing, once taken appropriately in the right dosage.

This virus can spread more in rural areas because most farmers in rural areas do not have sufficient education regarding the necessity of vaccination. Educating these farmers about the need for vaccination and the economic importance it adds, will help reduce the chances of a farm animal getting infected by a destructive virus.

The practice of basic management options like, the provision of clean water, a balanced diet, and minimizing stress during the lambing stage, and cold season will do a lot of good in preventing infections and diseases.

Remember that this disease has no treatment, and that is the reason why vaccination is crucial every year to prevent the huge economic loss that the presence of the disease could cause to farmers and the nation as a whole.