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Improving the understanding of the epidemiology of sheep and goat plague (Peste des petits ruminants, PPR)
Project
Project code: 2813ERA074
Contract period: 25.11.2013
- 30.11.2016
Budget: 253,024 Euro
Purpose of research: Experimental development
PPR is an economically important disease, affecting mainly domestic sheep and goats in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Its causative agent is a Morbillivirus closely related to rinderpest virus. PPR virus (PPRV) infects a wide host range of cloven hoofed animals of the families Bovidae, Cervidae and Suidae.
It is spreading rapidly despite availability of effective vaccines and diagnostic tests for PPR control. More recently, natural infection was reported in free-ranging wildlife, notably in bharal in Tibet, ibex in Pakistan and wild goats in Kurdistan.
All these wildlife outbreaks were associated with PPR-infected livestock. The role of wildlife in PPR epidemiology remains unclear. It is not known whether wildlife contributes to the local transmission, spread and maintenance of PPRV.
A central question in the PPRV eradication is the ability of wildlife to act as a long-term reservoir. According data are too scarce to draw any conclusion at the moment.
Phylogenetic analysis based on partial N and F genes of circulating PPRV allows for them to be grouped into 4 lineages. However, full genome analysis by new generation sequencing (NGS) may provide more in-depth molecular epidemiological information and insights into the evolution and spread of PPRV. Diagnostic tools for PPR surveillance exist but they are not able to detect field infection rapidly. Rapid control and rapid field tests, such as Lateral Flow Devices and Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), need to be developed and validated.
Section overview
Subjects
- Animal health
- Special animal species
