Bluetongue outbreak in a sheep flock from Iran

Bluetongue virus (BTV) is an arthropodborne Orbivirus that belongs to the Reoviridae family. Bluetongue is one of the most important diseases of sheep. A flock of 300 Lacon sheep just arrived from France, located in the countryside of Qazvin city, Iran, was examined, in August 2022. In history taking and clinical examination, submandibular oedema (216/300, 72%), fever (216/300, 72%), inappetence (216/300, 72%), stomatitis (216/300, 72%), nasal discharge (90/300, 30%) and lameness (30/300, 10%) were recorded. Foot‐and‐mouth disease, bluetongue (BT), contagious ecthyma and peste des petits ruminants were the most important differential diagnosis with reference to clinical signs. Tongue scraping samples from four clinically affected sheep were sent to the laboratory for PCR tests and, in all of them, BTV was detected. The affected flock had a history of vaccination with an attenuated live vaccine in the previous 4 months. The morbidity rate, mortality rate and case fatality rate were 72% (216/300), 7% (21/300) and 9.7% (21/216), respectively. This report is the first documented clinical form of BT in sheep from Iran.