Seroprevelance of schmallenberg virus infection as emerging disease in cattle in Iraq

Abstract EN

Schmallenberg virus is an emergent disease which infect cattle, sheep and goats which cause loss of condition, diarrhea, and abortion in pregnant animals, so this study was conducted to detect the antibodies in imported calves by using cELISA, so 400 blood samples was collected calves in different ages and healthy status in a period between October 2018 to September 2019 in Nineveh province, the investigation of specific antibodies was done by competitive Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay, the results showed that the prevalence of Schmallenberg virus in imported calves was 21% (84 positive from 400 samples), high prevalence of infection in the animals more than 6 months to 1 year old 11.5% when compare with animals less than 6 months of age 9.5% , high incidence of infection in animals suffer from various clinical signs 17% and the healthy apparent animals recorded low prevalence of infection 4% , samples which collected in spring months recorded high prevalence of infection 7.5% while the lowest prevalence of infection with the virus recorded in winter months 2% , with significant variance in spring and summer months compared with other seasons, in conclusion this study was conducted that schmallenberg virus is newly emerge in Iraq and this study is firstly recorded this virus in cattle in Iraq.