Iraqi Journal of Veterinary Sciences

This study aimed to diagnose orf virus ORFV from infected goats in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate of Iraq, using polymerase chain reaction and construction of phylogenetic tree. Clinical examination was made on 400 goats in different herds and crusty scabs were collected from forty infected goats. All scabs were subjected to (PCR), sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis involving the presence of GIF gene GM-CSF^* inhibitor factor, a characteristic gene of the ORFV. The typical proliferative skin lesion with overall orf prevalence results by PCR was 10% with low mortality rates and high significance variation with age and gender. Two positive PCR amplicons were sent for partial-gene-based sequencing and Phylogenetic analysis. Multiple alignments of sequences presented close identities with two Iraqi global isolates of the virus. This study didn't only report novel sequences from the local orf virus isolates, but it also provides important data about transmission of local sheep orf virus into local goat during closely rearing and grazing and orf outbreak in small ruminant in Iraq might be suspected. 

The study was initiated to contribute to the meager knowledge of the anatomy of the African palm squirrel. Skin of the trunk and paw pads was the subject of interest. Basic gross and histological techniques were employed. The dorsal fur was grey with golden brown free endings, while the ventral fur was greyish white. The fur covered the entire trunk, extended through the dorsal surface of the distal carpal joint to the dorsal surface of the digits. Five digital pads, three inter-digital pads and two metacarpal pads were observed on the forefoot. There was no observable digital pad on the hind foot; four inter-digital and two metacarpal pads were observed. Surface grooves were evident in the cornified layer of the trunk skin, but not in the paw pad skin. The mean thickness of the cornified layer of the epidermis of the palmar pad was 75.54±3.45 μm, while the entire epidermis was 102.32±4.23 μm thick. The non-cornified layer of the trunk skin was made of only three distinct layers, as the stratum lucidum was not evident. Conversely, the stratum lucidum was evident in the paw pad skin. Dermal papillae observed in the paw pad skin were more numerous and progressed deeper into the non-cornified epidermis than those observed in the trunk skin. There were more melanocytes in the dorsal than in the ventral trunk skin. The study concluded that the trunk and paw pad skin of the African palm squirrel enable its adaptation to arboreal habitat.

The study aimed to investigate the effect of season on the skin and cutaneous glands in local Awassi breed of sheep (Ovis ovis). The study was done on five healthy adult rams of Awassi breed in winter and summer at five anatomical regions (armpit, back, scrotum, ventral surface of fatty tail and dorsal surface of the fatty tail). The study explained that season had no significant effect on the histological structure of the sheep's skin, while there was a significant variation in the histological measurements of most structures of skin such as skin layers, sweat and sebaceous glands where the thickness of the corneal layer of the skin varied between the winter and summer seasons ,it was thicker in the winter than in the summer for most of the studied areas, the variation was higher and more significantly at scrotum , where the epidermis was thicker in winter than in summer for most of the few wool areas that included in the study, while in the dense wool areas the epidermis was thicker in summer than in winter. The study also showed that the season has a significant effect on the size of the sweat glands. The size of the sweat glands in the summer appeared to be greater than in the winter and for all areas of study, but the area of the scrotum and the skin of the ventral surface of fatty tail showed the opposite. the season had an effect on the depth of the sweat glands in the dermis. With the exception of the scrotum and the ventral surface of the fatty tail, the sweat glands were deeper in the summer than in the winter for the rest of the study areas. The lining of the sweat glands units was affected by the change of season. In the summer, the height of the cells of the sweat units was increased and for all regions of the study to reached 16.43 micrometers in the scrotum area for the summer while decreased in winter to reached 10.70 micrometers. So, we can say that the sweat glands of the study areas faced the warm climate not only by the increase in the size of the glands and their proximity to the surface in the summer but also by increased functional activity. The sebaceous glands in the area of the ventral surface of the fatty tail had a large difference between the winter and summer followed by the rest of the areas, either the armpit areas and the dorsal surface of the fatty tail did not show any significant difference between the two seasons. Finally, we found the season has been shown to play a significant role in influencing the histological measurements of skin and skin glands.

This study aimed to evaluate the benefits of using platelet– rich plasma (PRP) on wound healing. The study performed on ten adult male dogs, aged 2-3 years and their weight were 18-25 kg. Under the effect of deep sedation and local subcutaneous anesthesia at the site of wound, four of (2x2) cm of full-thickness square cutaneous wounds were induced, two on each side of the lateral thoracic region of each animal. A pair of left wounds was treated by injection with 5 mL of autonomous PRP (treatment group), 2 mm lateral to the wound edges and in the wound center., immediately after wounding while, right wounds, were injected with a single dose of 5ml of sterile saline (control group) by using the same procedure as in treatment group. The clinical and histopathological evaluation of each group for five weeks, histological biopsies were taken in the days (3, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35) of the experiment. The clinical evaluation of PRP treated wounds showed that the wound healing process (% contraction, % re-epithelization and % total wound healing) were significantly more (P<0.05) than the control wounds during the five weeks study. The histopathological results revealed that PRP treated wounds have enhanced cellularity, increased vascularity, with increased amount of granulation tissue accompanied by increase numbers of skin appendages suggesting enhanced cutaneous regeneration, than those in untreated wounds. Depending on the clinical and histopathological findings, this study confirms that local implantation of PRP leads to acceleration and improvement cutaneous wound healing.