Sero-prevalence study of bluetongue infection in sheep and goats in selected areas of Ethiopia

Bluetongue is an infectious, a non-contagious, arthropod borne viral disease ofruminants and has been reported from most of the tropical and subtropical regionsof the world. Seroprevalence study was carried from July, 2013 to January,2015 to understand bluetongue virus infection in selected areas of sheep andgoats found in and around small ruminant breed improvement center. A total of1420 sera samples from sheep and goats were collected and screened for the presence of group specific bluetongue virus antibody using competitive Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay(c-ELISA) with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 99%. The overall seroprevalence of bluetongue virus antibody was 69.01% and 60.53% in sheep and goats, respectively. Seroprevalence of bluetongue ranges from 14.5% (Adami Tulu Research Center) to 91.43 % (Benestemay). Antibody to bluetongue virus was detected from both sheep and goats in all study areas. Result of this study showed that small ruminant dwelling in and around the small ruminantbreed improvement centers are exposed to bluetongue virus. In the present studyareas there were no observation of clinical cases in any species of animals. Thisindicates that local breed of animals are resistant to clinical disease of bluetongueinfection and or there may be circulation of mild virus strain in the population andso further studies are required to determine the bluetongue serotypes that arecirculating in sheep and goats.Keywords: Bluetongue Virus, ELISA, Seroprevalence, Sheep and Goats, Ethiopi