Characteristics of orf in a farming community in mid-Wales

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Abstract
Orf, a parapox viral infection of sheep and goats, has been recognised for over 200 years. Human cases were first recorded in the 1930s.1 Transmission occurs by direct inoculation, commonly from the infected muzzles of hand reared lambs. The true incidence and prevalence of human orf is unknown, and workers familiar with the disease may not report infection. The typical target-like lesions most often affect the hands and heal spontaneously in six to seven weeks. Complications include secondary infection, erythema multiforme, and a generalised papulovesicular eruption.2 I recorded the morbidity from and the prevalence, seasonal variation, and complication rate of human orf in a farming community in mid-Wales, a population at risk of the disease. Questionnaires were sent to 292 patients at this practice who worked with sheep and …

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