An updated review on lumpy skin disease: a perspective of Southeast Asian countries

Recently, Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) has been portrayed as a terrifying threat to cattle in Southeast Asia. A lump like nodules in the external skin and mucous membrane with fever and swollen lymph nodes are the preliminary noticeable clinical signs of this devastating disease. It is commonly an arthropod-borne contagious illness, correspondingly the non-vector spreading through body discharge and infected fomites. The incubation period ranges from one to four weeks leading to viremia. A pronounced socio-economic collapse is driven by reduced quantity and quality of milk, udder infection, thinness, low quality hides, loss of draught power, abortion, infertility, limitation to meat ingestion, higher morbidity, etc. Animals of any age and gender are susceptible to the disease. The morbidity rate varies according to the immune status of animals and frequency of mechanical vectors. Primarily the disease was endemic in most Sub-Saharan regions of Africa, consequently extent to Middle East, Europe, and Asia. In the South-Eastern part of Asia, the disease has first been introduced in Bangladesh in July 2019 followed by China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Myanmar. Bangladesh recorded the maximum attack rate in Chattogram whereas at Cuttack in India. Particular vulnerable locations of other countries are yet to be confirmed. There is no epidemiological proceeding considering the present LSD situation report from rest of Asia. Strict quarantine, vector control, and prophylactic vaccine might be the best remedy for limiting the risk factors of the disease. Future studies should be directed towards determining the true burden of LSD on livestock and its potential risk factors with the perspective of geographic distributions.