Risk factors correlated to orf in Guantanamo Province

Orf is a highly contagious viral disease that causes important economic losses in sheep and goat farms, and constitutes zoonosis. The employment of vaccines for the control of this illness is limited and it has been associated to outbreaks because of the insufficient attenuation of the vaccine strains. Even if it is known that Orf is wide spread in sheep and goats farms in Cuba, there is still a lack of epidemiological data on this disease. Considering the limitations of effective specific preventive measures against orf this work was directed to identify the risks factors correlated to the disease, by the means of a case-control study. The risk factors for the animal population were assessed in order to identify additional means to control the disease. A total of ten flocks randomly selected were investigated. For gathering information a survey was carried out to identify the presumed risk factors. The survey allowed us to identify the risk factors significantly associated to the disease. The strength of the identified associations and etiological ratio at individual and population level, evidenced a real possibility to significantly reduce the orf incidence through an improvement of handling procedures.