Methods of laboratory diagnostics of sheep and goat pox

The article presents methods of laboratory diagnostics of sheep and goat pox. The diagnosis of smallpox in sheep and goats is based on the results of an epizootological examination, identified clinical signs and pathoanatomic changes confirmed by the results of laboratory tests. In this work, a literature search was conducted on sheep and goat pox in the PubMed and Web of Science scientometric databases, as well as in the Russian Scientific Citation Database – RSCI. After analyzing them, we conducted a selection of 27 scientific articles. Thus, the diagnosis of smallpox in sheep and goats is based on the results of an epizootological examination, identified clinical signs and pathoanatomic changes confirmed by the results of laboratory tests. For laboratory studies, samples of the affected skin, lungs, and lymph nodes are taken no later than one week after the first clinical signs appear. All tests make it possible to identify a small conservative genetic locus in the capriboxvirus genome, which has the ability to copy with high accuracy and maintain the constancy of its molecular structure in space and time. However, these methods do not allow to distinguish sheep pox virus from goat pox virus or infectious nodular dermatitis virus. Real-time PCR methods for direct genotyping of the capriboxvirus virus without the need for genetic sequencing are described.