Serological diagnosis of FMD in sheep in Basra by ELISA test

This study was performed to detect the antibodies against the virus-infection- associated antigen (VIAA) in previously diseased and healthy sheep in Basra. The test is valuable in epizootiological surveys because only infected animals with foot and mouth disease virus will give positive reaction without detection of the virus serotypes. 241 sheep sera were collected from 13 suspicious infected sheep flocks with FMD from two major areas in Basra (Abulkhaseeb and Alzubair). All these samples were examined by ELISA test to VIA antigen. It was found -by ELISA- that 71.9% of the total tested sheep sera build specific VIA antibodies against FMD virus, and that 91.7% of the clinically infected sheep gave positive result and that 66.8% of the clinically non-infected sheep were negative. The higher rate of seropositivity in both Abuelkhaseeb and AL-Zubair areas was in the age between 3.5 – 4.5 year (80%) and (81.8%) respectively. The high prevalence of seropositivity to VIA could be due to sub clinical infection or to carrier state and the disease in sheep mild and go un-noticed but important because of transmission to cattle.