A Review of Global Epidemiology of Lumpy Skin Disease, its Economic
Impact, and Control Strategies
Abstract
Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an emerging viral disease, particularly of
cattle and water buffalo. The disease is caused by lumpy skin disease
virus (LSDV), a member of the genus Capripoxvirus of family Poxviridae
which is manifested by characteristic skin nodules, pyrexia,
lachrymation, nasal discharge, and swelling of superficial lymph nodes.
Lumpy skin disease causes huge economic losses to the livestock farmers
due to significant milk loss, damage of the hides, and reproductive
problems such as abortion and infertility in affected animals.
Initially, LSD was confined to Africa but later spread to Asia and
Europe, particularly after 2012. This article describes the spatial and
temporal patterns of LSD outbreaks that occurred from
2005-Mid-September, 2020 using the publicly available outbreak data from
the World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) of the World
Organization for Animal Health (OIE). There were 3118 LSD outbreaks
reported in the last 15 years with 2265 (72.6%) from Europe, 462 from
Asia (14.8%), and 391(12.5%) outbreaks from Africa. 3070 (98.46%) of
the total outbreaks during the study period occurred since 2012, with
the highest month-wise outbreaks observed in July (778) and seasonally
in the summer season (1873) which corresponds with the vector season.
Since 2012, around 3 (2.78) new countries per year are being affected by
LSD. The current situation of LSD spread demands for globally
coordinated efforts to control this transboundary disease. Effective
surveillance for early detection, vector control measures, vaccination,
and regulation of animal movement is necessary to curb down the further
spread of LSD.