A serologicalsurveillance of bluetongue disease in sheep and goats in Iraq by using acompetitive ELISA Technique Khalid H. Shlash1 , Laith MS. Abdul-Rasoul2 , Mazin M. Naji2 ,Mahir H. Hussain2

Abstract

In this study, a sero-survillance on ovine and caprine serum samples from all over Iraq
except the governorates of Iraqi Kurdistan region was conducted. It aimed for the detection of
specific antibodies directed against VP7 protein - the sero-group specific antigen of blue
tongue virus – by using a competitive ELISA technique.The results showed that among a total
of 3277 serum samples, 1436 samples were found to be positive forming 43.82% of total
samples, while 1687 samples were negative with 51.48 % and 154 sample were suspicious
forming 4.69 %. The highest positive serum samples were found in Al Basrah Province
(southern of Iraq) with 60.41% and in Al Anbar Province (Western of Iraq) with 61%, while
the lowest of positive samples were found in Nineva (Northern of Iraq) with 22.35%.
The results also showed a closely ratio between positive percentage of goats and sheep
samples with the positive goats serum samples ( in five provinces ) were 45 of 114 samples
representing 39.47 %,while the positive sheep serum samples ( in fifteen provinces) were
1391 of 3163 samples representing43.97%. Our study is complementary to the previous
works held in this field and it represents the first field serological survey for bluetonguein
sheep and goats in Iraq.