1. INTRODUCTION
Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an infectious disease affecting cattle and
water buffaloes (Coetzer and Tuppurainen, 2004). This disease also
occasionally affects Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) and springbok
(Antidorcas marsupialis) and have affected impala (Aepyceros melampus)
and giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) during experimental infection
(Tuppurainen et al., 2017). However, there is limited evidence of
infection in sheep and goats. The causative agent of this disease is a
Capripoxvirus of the Poxviridae family (Tulman et al., 2001). The
morbidity and mortality from this disease are around 20-40% and less
than 5% respectively (Limon et al., 2020). However, milk production
will be reduced significantly making it an economically important
disease for dairy farmers and industry (Molla et al., 2017; Morgenstern
and Klement, 2020). The major clinical signs exhibited by the infected
animals include a high fever of more than 104°F, loss of appetite, nasal
and lacrimal discharges, nodular lesions of 0.5- 5 cm in different parts
of the body, swollen lymph nodes, and reduced milk production
(Tuppurainen et al., 2017; Ochwo et al., 2019). This disease is
primarily transmitted by arthropod vectors including mosquitoes (e.g.Culex mirificens and Aedes natrionus ), biting flies (for
example Stomoxys calcitrans and Biomyia fasciata ), and
male ticks (Riphicephalus appendiculatus and Amblyomma
hebraeum ) (Tuppurainen et al., 2017 and Sprygin et al., 2019) while
iatrogenic transmission and other direct and indirect contacts with
infected animals might also play a minor role in the disease
transmission (Tuppurainen and Galon, 2016). The LSD was first detected
in Zambia, Africa in 1929 (Davies, 1991) and circulated only within
Africa until it was detected in Israel in 1989 (Yeruham et al., 1995).
The spread of this disease became concerning after 2012 as outbreaks
were reported from the Middle East, Southeast Europe, Russia, and
Kazakhstan (Tuppurainen et al., 2017). The disease was reported in
Bangladesh in July 2019 (OIE, 2019a) and India and China in August 2019
(OIE, 2019b, and OIE, 2019c).
In Nepal, a South Asian country that lies between India and China,
cattle started becoming sick in late June 2020 in Province 1 showing LSD
like lesions that include high fever and nodular lesions in different
body parts. Later, the disease was also observed in cattle of Province 2
and Bagmati province. Subsequently, the disease was confirmed as LSD at
the Central Veterinary Laboratory in late July 2020 (OIE, 2020d). In
this report, we describe the first confirmation of an LSD outbreak in
Gandaki province, the western part of Nepal.