The four strains (TPT, ANT, KDP and CHI) of goatpox virus were characterized. The virus showed loss of infectivity at 55°C for 60 min, 60°C for 30 min, 70°C for 10 min, pH3 and 5 for one hour, chloroform and ether. Under electron microscopy, the viral particles appeared as brick shaped while under immunoelectron microscopy, a clear cut aggregation of viral particles was observed with the specific serum against goatpox virus. Antigenically, the virus revealed three precipitation bands and arcs in AGID and IEP, respectively, whereas molecularly under SDS-PAGE the virus showed 17 co-migrating fragments, of which five were major fragments having molecular weights of 67K, 64K, 47K, 30K and 22K. While with RFLP, the virus strains revealed 95 percent homology by generating 15 bands of size ranging from 31 Kb to 2 Kb.
