Sheep and goat pox in Spain, Andalusia

: Fig 1. Location of holding affected by sheep and goat pox (Source: RASVE)

On 19 September 2022 the Official Veterinary Services (OVS) of the Regional Government (Junta) of Andalusia, Spain, notified to OIE an outbreak of sheep and goat Pox in a breeding sheep farm located in the municipality of Benamaurel, in the province of Granada.

It the farm there were 314 sheep and 11 goats.

The suspicion arose from the appearance and communication of clinical signs and lesions, compatible with the disease, to the OVS of the Regional Government of Andalusia on 14 Sep 2022.

The OVS diagnosed 50 clinically affected sheep and 30 dead animals; the remaining 284 sheep and 11 goats were killed; the carcasses, by-products and waste were disposed of under official control.

Samples were collected and sent to the Central Veterinary Laboratory (LCV) of the MAPA in Algete (Madrid), the national reference laboratory for the disease in Spain which confirmed, on 18 September, the positivity of the 50 animals by RT-PCR test and sequencing for sheep pox virus.

The Andalusian authorities have immediately adopted the control measures contemplated in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/687 of the Commission, which completes Regulation (EU) 2016/429 of the European Parliament and of the Council about standards relating to disease
prevention and control of the disease.

It is a recurrence of an eradicated disease since the last time the ovine and caprine small pox appeared was 31 December 1968.

Informatin related to the disease

Source:

WAHIS