Comparative Clinicopathologic Studies on Sheep Pox and Goat Pox in Bauchi and Gombe of North-Eastern Nigeria

In Nigeria, sheep pox and goat pox is a major problem. Sheep pox and goat pox diseases are highly contagious viral diseases of small ruminants caused by a virus of the <i>Capripox</i> genus. This study was aimed to comparatively evaluate the clinico-pathological changes in sheep and goats manifesting the clinical cases of the diseases. The design of the study was a cross sectional survey. A total of 166 sheep (66) and goats (100) were sampled purposively. Three millilitres of blood sampled was collected from the external jugular vein of affected and apparently healthy sheep and goats used for haematological analyses. Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) was used to confirm the presence of sheeppox and/or goatpox virus in 34 scrapped skin scrapings collected from sheep (14 samples) and goats (20 samples) that showed the characteristic of pock lesions. Dead sheep and goats were necropsied and fixed in 10% neutral-buffered formalin and were routinely processed for histopathology. Clinical signs observed were fever (high rectal temperatures of 40 to 41.5°C in sheep and 38 to 40°C in goats), papules, and abortion in goats among others. The mean PCV value of sheep and goats with pock lesions (24.07±5.36%) and (27.63±5.24%), respectively were significantly lower than those of apparently healthy sheep (33.09±4.24%) and goats (31.66±2.7%). The mean HBC value of sheep and with pock lesions (8.80±2.49g/dl) was significantly lower than those of apparently sheep (11.30±1.62g/dl), while there was no significant difference between the HBC of goats with pock lesions (12.78±2.81g/dl) and apparently healthy goats (11.91±1.14g/dl). The mean RBC of sheep value (6.46±2.55×10<sup>12</sup>/L) was significantly lower than that of apparently healthy sheep (9.06±2.24 x 10<sup>12</sup>/L), The mean values for WBC count, absolute neutrophils and lymphocyte were also affected. Of the 34 skin samples collected and analyzed for the presence of sheep/goat pox viruses, 30 (88.2%) yielded positive using universal Capripox primers. Of the 30 positive samples, 21 were further subjected to sheep pox specific primers, 18 (85.7%) positive were obtained for sheeppox specific primers and no sample yielded positive result to goat specific primers. Overall, 88.2% of sheep and goat populations showing pock lesions were confirmed for sheeppox. The results of this study suggest that sheeppox virus was responsible for the disease outbreaks in sheep and goats from the study areas. Sheep pox disease has the potential of causing significant alteration in the hematological parameters resulting in anemia and immunosuppression. Yearly vaccination of sheep and goats is therefore recommended.