Orf (disease)
skin disease and general infection in sheep, goats, chamois, reindeer and muskrats
Orf is a farmyard pox, a type of zoonosis. It causes small pustules in the skin of primarily sheep and goats, but can also occur on the hands of humans. A pale halo forms around a red centre. It may persist for several weeks before crusting and then either resolves or leaves a granuloma. There is usually only one non-painful lesion, but there can be more. Lymph nodes may also become swollen.
It is caused by a parapoxvirus. It can occur in humans who handle infected animals or contaminated objects. One-third of cases may develop erythema multiforme. Once resolved, a person can still be infected again.
“Orf (disease)” enters the record as skin disease and general infection in sheep, goats, chamois, reindeer and muskrats. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what disease, skin and general can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Orf (disease)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, disease, skin and general provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q681970. The Library of Congress control number is sh85031511. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Orf (disease)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.