Improved understanding of the epidemiology of peste-de-petits ruminants (PPR)

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PPR is an economically important disease, especially affecting the household economy of the poorest people, affecting mainly domestic sheep and goats in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Its causative agent is a Morbillivirus closely related to rinderpest virus (RPV) which has just been eradicated, the first-ever animal virus eradicated. PPR virus (PPRV) infects a wide host range of cloven hoofed animals. It is spreading rapidly despite availability of effective vaccines and diagnostic tests for PPR control. It is now in Turkey at the gateway to the European Union and threatening southern Africa. The failure to manage PPR is perhaps, linked to both cessation of RPV vaccination which was cross protective and widely used in domestic sheep and goats and inattention to the small livestock sector. Diagnostic tools for PPR surveillance exist but they are not able to detect field infection rapidly, precluding rapid control and rapid field tests, such as Lateral Flow Devices and Loopmediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), need to be developed and validated. A challenge is accessing wildlife samples, for technical and related costs. Current methods require animal capture for sampling. Recent success in obtaining antibody and virus antigen from faeces in livestock suggest that this method might be applicable in wildlife. Urgent attention is needed at the borders of the pandemic. Turkey is the closest country to Europe that has reported outbreaks of PPR. It hosts the same community of wild ruminants as Europe. These wild ruminants might play the role of bridge species for PPRV transmission between distant populations of infected and health domestic sheep and goats populations. Research is urgently needed to clarify the epidemiology of PPR in wildlife species and populations, including genomic, virulence and field eco-epidemiological studies, crucial to establish an efficient and effective control strategy for PPRV.

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