Multifocal Cutaneous Orf Virus Infection in Goats in the Amazon Region, Brazil

Orf virus is the etiological agent of contagious ecthyma, a severe exanthematic disease that affects small ruminants. Orf virus is zoonosis that is associated with occupational contact with infected animals in human disease. Clinically, contagious ecthyma is characterized by the appearance of vesicles, pustules, ulcers, and papillomatous proliferative lesions on the skin of the lips and nostrils. Here we describe a case of lethal cutaneous multifocal Orf virus infection in goats in the Amazon region of Brazil. Exanthematic lesions were collected and epidemiological and clinical data were obtained. Orf virus was detected using PCR amplification of the whole B2L, VIR, and VEGF open reading frame. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that this virus clustered together with the Orf virus samples isolated during classical contagious ecthyma. The present work is the first to report a severe proliferative Orf virus case in South America.