Outbreak of fatal contagious pustular dermatitis among goats in Tamil Nadu

Contagious pustular dermatitis (CPD) or Contagious ecthyma or Orf caused by a parapox virus is a highly contagious disease of sheep and goats occurring throughout the world and of zoonotic concern. This disease was reported from different parts of India (Kumar et al., 1974; Joshi et al., 1996). Hitherto Orf was described as a begin disease, which rarely causes any mortality (Ravi Kumar et al., 2000; Debasis Jana and Mousumi Ghosh, 2002). Mortality rate of up to 10 per cent was reported by Nettleton et al, (1996). Recently Govindarajan et al., (2003) have recorded Orf in a large number of sheep in and around Salem city. Since 1999 several outbreaks of Orf in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu namely, Thirunelveli, Virudhunagar, Madurai, Sivagangai, Ramnad, Dindigul and Theni were attended but could not be confirmed due to the non-availability of laboratory procedures. This time the disease has been confirmed and communicated in this paper with an unusual mortality rate and a need to adopt suitable control measures in Tamil Nadu.