Lumpy skin disease: A growing threat to the global livestock industry

Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is an infectious disease in cattle caused by the Lumpy Skin Disease Virus by the Poxviridae family. Historically, LSD was first documented in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1929 as a symptom of bug bite poisoning or hypersensitivity, described as pseudo-urticaria. This disease, which causes widespread malaise and persistent weakness, is a serious, economically devastating, and reportable condition that lowers cattle output. The illness starts as a biphasic fever. After fever, emaciation, ocular discharge, and agalactia, the clinical signs of a minor infection develop as one or two nodular lumps appear 2–3 days later. In particular, the skin of the muzzle, back, nostrils, legs, scrotum, eyelids, lower ears, nasal, perineum, oral mucosa, and tail display painful, hyperemic, nodular lesions. A number of diagnostic methods, such as virus isolation in cell culture, transmission electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, direct and indirect fluorescent antibody testing, agar gel immunodiffusion, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, western blotting, and serum neutralization test (SNT), are used to confirm the clinical diagnosis. This disease is spread by arthropods such as flies, mosquitoes, and ticks. It is most common during the rainy season, when there is a high number of biting insects, and it declines during the dry season. LSD has direct and indirect economic impacts on livestock and the industry. Since there is no effective antiviral medication to treat LSD, the only viable method of disease containment is vaccination.