The sero-prevalence of antibodies against blue tongue virus (BTV) in 408 local breeds of sheep in Rajasthan state in India was investigated using standard agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test. Maximum seropositivities of 11.3% (13/115), 10.7% (13/121), 7.1% (11/155) and 5.9% (1/17) were recorded in the Chokla, Magra, Nali and Pugal breeds, respectively. Out of 107 goat serum samples, 6 (5.6%) were AGID positive. The performance of the standard AGID, counter current immuno-electrophoresis (CCIE) and the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) for the detection of serum antibody against BTV in indigenous breeds of sheep were compared. Out of 178 sheep serum samples tested, 17 (9.5%), 22 (12.3%) and 54 (30.3%) were positive for group-specific bluetongue antibodies by AGID, CCIE and cELISA, respectively. There was appreciable difference in the seroprevalence detected by AGID, CCIE and cELISA in clinically healthy and diseased sheep with regard to relative sensitivities and specificities of the tests with cELISA being highly sensitive and specific followed by CCIE and AGID test. It was concluded that these indigenous breeds of sheep may be a potential reservoir of BTV infection and cELISA should be routinely used for the detection of antibodies against BTV in these local breeds of sheep.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/*analysis ; Bluetongue/*diagnosis/*epidemiology ; Counterimmunoelectrophoresis ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Goat Diseases/*diagnosis ; Goats ; Immunodiffusion ; India/epidemiology ; Prevalence ; Sheep

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) diagnosis from suspected samples from sheep and goats was carried out. Buffy coat, tissues, and oculo-nasal swabs were analyzed using nucleoprotein (NP3/NP4) and fusion protein (F1/F2) gene primers, respectively. Analysis of the sample types and primer set revealed that buffy coat are the best type of samples for PPR diagnosis and the use of two set of primers will increase the number of positives.
Animals ; DNA Primers/analysis ; Eye/virology ; Goat Diseases/blood/*diagnosis/epidemiology/virology ; Goats ; Hair/virology ; Nose/virology ; Nucleoproteins/analysis ; Peste-des-Petits-Ruminants/blood/*diagnosis/epidemiology/virology ; Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Pigmentation ; RNA, Viral/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/*methods/standards/veterinary ; Sheep ; Sheep Diseases/blood/*diagnosis/epidemiology/virology ; Uganda/epidemiology