Patho-Epidemiological study of jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus infection in the sheep and goats population, India

ABSTRACT

An epidemiological study was conducted along with pathological, immunohistochemistry (IHC) of capsid antigen and molecular detection of jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) causing ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA) in sheep and goats population from three states of India viz. Delhi, Gannavaram (Andhra Pradesh), and Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh). A total of 1350 lungs samples were screened and out of which 31 (2.29%) animals were found to be positive [sheep (3.49%) and goats (0.00%)] for JSRV. The prevalence of infection was recorded Gannavarum (20.00%) followed by Delhi (2.10%) and no any positive cases found in Bareilly area. Age wise higher prevalence was recorded >3 year age groups followed by 1–3 years and 1 < year, respectively. Significantly, higher infection was observed in female sheep compared to male sex of sheep. Seasonally, the prevalence of JSRV infection was higher in monsoon (6.00%) followed winter season (3.34%) and summer season. The observations of the present study would provide basis for further an effective explorative surveillance and epidemiological studies to know real impact of JSRV infection circulating in sheep and goats population of India.

KEYWORDS:

• Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus
• ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma
• histopathology
• immunohistochemistry
• prevalence

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Director and Joint Director (Research) of the Institute for providing the funds (Institute funded project vide grant no. IVRI/PATH/14-17/007) and facilities to carry out this work. The authors are also indebted to Dr. M. Palmarini, Director of Centre for Virus Research, Associate Academic (School of Veterinary Medicine), University of Glasgow, Scotland for providing polyclonal rabbit anti-JSRV antibody as a gift for IHC work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.