Prevalence of peste des petits ruminants among sheep and goats in India

This study measured the clinical prevalence of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) among sheep and goats in India between 2003 and 2009 by analyzing clinical samples from suspected cases of PPR that were submitted to the Rinderpest and Allied Disease Laboratory, Division of Virology, IVRI, Mukteswar for PPR diagnosis. PPR outbreaks were confirmed by detecting PPR virus (PPRV)-specific antigen in the clinical samples. Clinical samples (blood, nasal swabs, spleen, lymph node, kidney, liver, intestine, and pooled tissue materials) were taken from a total of 592 sheep and 912 goats in different states of India and screened for the presence of PPRV antigen using a monoclonal antibody-based sandwich ELISA kit. A total of 20, 38, and 11 laboratory-confirmed PPR outbreaks occurred among sheep, goat, and combined sheep and goat populations, respectively. Our findings provide evidence of widespread PPR endemicity in India. The underlying reasons could be variations in husbandry practices in different geographical regions, agro-climatic conditions, and livestock migration. Furthermore, decrease in the number of PPR outbreaks over time might be due to the effectiveness of current live PPR vaccines and timely vaccination of target species. Vaccination against PPR has been practiced in India since 2002 to control this disease.