Vet World Vol.17 September-2024 Article - 2
Research Article
Veterinary World, 17(9): 1966-1971
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1966-1971
Prevalence of bluetongue virus disease in a small ruminant population in Kalat, Balochistan, Pakistan
2. Center for Advanced Studies in Vaccinology and Biotechnology(CASVAB), University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan.
3. Animal Sciences Division, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan.
4. Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan.
5. State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
6. Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, 518000, China.
7. College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
8. PhD Program in Sciences mentioning Applied Molecular and Cell Biology, La Frontera University, Temuco, Chile.
9. Department of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory of Engineering, Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry, Faculty of Engineering and Science, La Frontera University, Temuco, Chile.
10. Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, Catholic University of Temuco, Temuco, Chile.
11. Nucleus of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, Catholic University of Temuco, Temuco, Chile.
Background and Aim: Bluetongue is a vector-borne, emerging disease that poses a severe threat to most domesticated animals. A cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of bluetongue virus (BTV) disease in apparently healthy sheep and goats in Kalat, Balochistan.
Materials and Methods: A total of 270 serum samples (sheep: 150 and goat: 120) were collected and screened for the detection of anti-BTV antibodies using a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data regarding different contributory risk factors were also collected using a predesigned questionnaire.
Results: It revealed that overall, 27.4% (74/270, 95% confidence interval, χ2 = 1.71, p = 0.12) prevalence in both sheep and goat populations. The highest prevalence of 47% (32/68) was recorded in Surab city with the lowest prevalence of 15.49% (11/71) in the Manguchar area. In contrast, in Kalat 28.1% (9/32), Daan area 24% (12/50), and Marap area 22.44% (11/49), seropositivity was recorded. Upon sex bases, antibodies were almost equally found in both male 28.57% (8/28) and female 27.27% (66/242) animal populations. Moreover, all four breeds (Balochi, Khurasani, Lehri, and Rakhshani) were equally and potentially seropositive. The Khurasani breed was the most susceptible to 34.69% (17/49), followed by the Balochi breed, 45/145 (31%) seropositivity. The prevalence of BTV was 16.66% (1/6) in Rakhshani breed and 15.71% (11/70) in Lehri breed., Ticks were found in almost 21% of animals, while 93% of animals were reared on open grazing in rangelands.
Conclusion: This study clearly indicates widespread BTV infection in small ruminants in the study area that may pose serious threats to livestock farming. Further extensive studies are recommended to study the prevalence of disease in different agroecological zones of the province. This also warns the high-ups to manage concrete efforts to eradicate and control the disease in the area.
Keywords: antibodies, Balochistan, bluetongue virus, competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Kalat.
How to cite this article: Ahmad S, Shafee M, Razzaq A, Badshah F, Khan NU, Ibáñez-Arancibia E, De los Ríos-Escalante PR, Arif HM, and Hussain A (2024) Prevalence of bluetongue virus disease in a small ruminant population in Kalat, Balochistan, Pakistan, Veterinary World, 17(9): 1966-1971.
Received: 2024-02-23 Accepted: 2024-07-22 Published online: 2024-09-01
Corresponding author: E-mail:
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1966-1971
Copyright: Ahmad, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
