Detection of Two Species of the Genus Parapoxvirus (Bovine Papular Stomatitis Virus and Pseudocowpox Virus) in Ticks Infesting Cattle in Burkina Faso

Abstract

The molecular identification of arboviruses in West Africa is of particular interest, due to their zoonotic potential in a population living in close contact with livestock, and in a region where the livestock migration across borders raises the risk of diseases infection and dissemination. The aim of the study was the screening of potential circulating arboviruses and the assessment of their zoonotic implications. Therefore, ticks were collected on cattle located in three provinces of eastern Burkina Faso. Tick pools were tested using a panel of genus-specific real-time assays targeting conserved regions of parapoxvirus, orthopoxvirus, flavivirus and phlebovirus. On the 26 farms visited, a total of 663 ticks were collected. Four genera and six tick species were morphologically identified, with Amblyomma variegatum and Hyalomma spp. being the most represented species. No arboviruses were found. However, this study highlights the presence of pseudocowpox virus (8.2%) and bovine papular stomatitis virus (5.8%) among the positive tick pools. BPSV positive ticks were found in herds sharing water and pastures resources and with a history of seasonal transhumance. Therefore, common grazing and the seasonal transhumance are likely to support the transmission of the virus. This could have important health and economic impacts, especially regarding transboundary cattle movements.

Viral Diseases of Zoonotic Importance of Domestic Ruminants

“…The virus infects the people working with affected cattle with unprotected hands, causing what is called "milker's nodules." (Ouedraogo et al 2020).…”

“…Fomites, including calves mouths, hands and milking machines are all considered as source of the Pseudocowpox infection (Ouedraogo et al 2020).…”

Molecular detection of parapoxvirus in Ixodidae ticks collected from cattle in Corsica, France

“…Recently, the presence of two parapoxvirus (pseudocowpox virus and bovine popular stomatitis virus) was reported in ticks collected from zebu cattle in Eastern Burkina Faso (Ouedraogo et al, 2020).…”

Immunomodulatory Strategies for Parapoxvirus: Current Status and Future Approaches for the Development of Vaccines against Orf Virus Infection

“…Moreover, a larger percentage of infectious diseases that hinder the livestock industry today are caused by pathogenic animal viruses [1][2][3][4][5]. To meet the high demand in livestock production, animals must be protected from infectious viruses such as ORFV [6][7][8][9] and several other pathogenic viruses of veterinary importance [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Therefore, the prevention of infectious diseases in animals can lead to widespread eradication of viruses [17][18][19][20], sustainable livestock production [21] and consequently improved life expectancy of farmers and veterinarians [6,[22][23][24].…”

“…The classic pathological signs are scabs on the mucosal borders of the skin, lips, nose, eyelids, feet, teats of lactating ewes, and mouth [26,31,32]. Likewise, the virus incurred huge financial losses in the small ruminants industry by reducing both the quality [39,41] and quantity of milk [3,42,43], and even the death of infected animals [6,44,45]. In addition, ORFV infection has serious socio-cultural and economic challenges for livestock farmers, most of whom rely on small ruminants as their main source of livelihood [17,27,[33][34][35][36][37].…”