ABSTRACT
Rift Valley fever (RVF), occasionally known as enzootic hepatitis, gets its name from the epizootics of this infection which occurred on farms in the Rift Valley of Kenya. In nature, the disease mainly affects farm animals including cattle, sheep, and goats, often with a high death rate, especially of the newborn. The virus causing RVF is a member of the Phlebovirus group of the family Bunyaviridae, which comprises over 200 viruses that infect vertebrates and invertebrates. RVF virus may be transmitted to man in several ways. First, as in the case of sheep and other domestic animals, it may be transmitted by mosquito bite into the dermal and subdermal tissues or directly into the bloodstream. Originally described in sheep, the main threat of Rift Valley fever has been to the farm domestic animals, particularly sheep and lambs. B. J. H. Barnard compared the antibody and immune réponses in cattle to a live and inactivated RVF vaccine.
