Spread and impact of goat pox (“sagolay bohonta”) in a village smallholder community around Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India

During September and October 2017, a highly fatal outbreak of a disease clinically indistinguishable from goat pox occurred in the villages around the Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. This was investigated through clinical examination of affected animals, individual interviews with goat keepers and participatory village meetings. Laboratory confirmation was impractical due to the isolation and poverty of the affected community and unnecessary due to the specific nature of the clinical signs. Respondents reported not having encountered the disease previously, and it would appear that a naïve local population developed within an endemically affected region because of a trend to avoid purchasing animals from outside the village. Local grazing practices appear to have had a role in both the spread and control of the outbreak. Goats are an important form of savings and cash income to people in the locality, and the outbreak may result in considerable financial hardship for affected goat keepers. We provide a detailed description of the clinical disease and the spread of the outbreak in the locality. Awareness of the disease with reference to farming practices will provide opportunities for future disease control to enhance animal welfare and rural prosperity.