An outbreak of pox among goats in Ninevah province, Iraq was studied clinically, pathologically and virologically. Affected goats showed marked depression, prostration, fever, dyspnea, and nasal and ophthalmic discharges. Nodular cutaneous pox lesions, 0.5-1.5 cm in diameter, were seen scattered allover the body. Microscopically, the lesions were quite variable. In some of the cases there was thinning of the epidermis and accumulation of oedema fluid within and beneath the epidermis. Additionally, there were proliferation of the skin adnexa and infiltration of the dermis with
large number of histiocytes. In other cases, there was epidermal thicknening due to hyperplasia and hyperkeratosis. In these cases, inflammatory exudate consisting mainly of polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells was seen immediately beneath the epidermis. Necrosis of the skin adnexa was recognized in these cases In all cases, acidophilic cytoplasmic inclusion bodies were seen in the, infiltrating histiocytes and the squamous epithelial cells of the epidermis. Experimental production of the disease was successifully attempted in apparently healthy goats throug) ;intradermal inoculation of infective material collected from naturally infected goats.