Virus particles and antigens in natural orf

Severe long-lasting contagious ecthyma infection in a goat's kid

In this report we describe an unusual orf infection in a goat's kid, which lasted for 6 months. The disease was reproduced in two susceptible goat kids, which both completely recovered within 37 days. Further clinical observations on these kids for 12 months did not reveal any signs of orf disease. The orf virus was isolated and identified from the animals which were involved in the original outbreak, from the kid that showed the long-lasting disease and from the experimentally-infected kids. The situation is discussed.