A serologicalsurveillance of bluetongue disease in sheep and goats in Iraq by using acompetitive ELISA Technique

Abstract

In this study, a sero-survillance on ovine and caprine serum samples from all over Iraq except the governorates of Iraqi Kurdistan region was conducted. It aimed for the detection of specific antibodies directed against VP7 protein - the sero-group specific antigen of blue tongue virus – by using a competitive ELISA technique.The results showed that among a total of 3277 serum samples, 1436 samples were found to be positive forming 43.82% of total samples, while 1687 samples were negative with 51.48 % and 154 sample were suspicious forming 4.69 %. The highest positive serum samples were found in Al Basrah Province (southern of Iraq) with 60.41% and in Al Anbar Province (Western of Iraq) with 61%, while the lowest of positive samples were found in Nineva (Northern of Iraq) with 22.35%. The results also showed a closely ratio between positive percentage of goats and sheep samples with the positive goats serum samples ( in five provinces ) were 45 of 114 samples representing 39.47 %,while the positive sheep serum samples ( in fifteen provinces) were 1391 of 3163 samples representing43.97%. Our study is complementary to the previous works held in this field and it represents the first field serological survey for bluetonguein sheep and goats in Iraq.