Lumpy skin disease is a disease caused by a virus of the family Poxviridae, also known as Neethling virus. It mainly affects cattle and zebus, but has also been seen in giraffes, African buffalo, and impalas. Lumpy skin disease was first seen as an epidemic in Zambia in 1929, and since then has affected cattle throughout Africa, including the countries South Africa, Egypt, and Sudan, and in 1989 an outbreak was confirmed in Israel. It is spread by biting insects.
Lumpyskin disease has an incubation period of two to four weeks. Symptoms include fever, discharge from the eyes and nose, nodular, necrotic skin lesions, edema of the limbs, and swollen lymph nodes. Morbidity can be very high but mortality is low. The disease can be easily confused in its early stages with pseudo-lumpy skin disease. Two vaccines are available, one a live attenuated version of the Neethling virus, the other a live attenuated version of the sheeppox virus.
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