Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) Dwarfs small ruminant production in sub-Saharan Africa!

A Food and Agriculture Organization report indicates that about 752 million of the world’s poor kept small ruminant livestock to produce food, generate income, manage risks, and build up assets (FAO, 2019). The report added that in Africa, sheep and goats represent around 30 percent of the ruminant livestock and contributed to about 17 percent of the continent’s meat and 12 percent of the continent’s milk. This shows that in Sub-Saharan Africa, rearing small ruminants can be an opportunity of vibrant options for sustainable livelihoods. Unfortunately, many challenging factors especially diseases such as Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) have threated the sector. Like covid19, the outbreak of PPR highlights cracks in the regional livestock sector. The PPR outbreak is sending ripples around the region.

The disease Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR)

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), also known as sheep and goat plague, is a highly contagious animal disease affecting domestic and wild small ruminants. It is caused by a virus belonging to the genus Morbillivirus, family Paramixoviridae(Bao et al., 2011; Roger et al., 2001). Once newly introduced, the virus can infect up to 90 percent of an animal herd, and the disease kills anywhere up to 70 percent of infected animals. The PPR virus does not infect humans(Munir, 2015).

PPR was first described in 1942 in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa(Kaukarbayevich, 2009). Since then, the disease has spread to large regions in Africa. Today, more than 70 countries are affected or at high risk and many more are without an official PPR status(Aguilar et al., 2018). The inability of families, communities, and institutions to anticipate, absorb, or recover from PPR can compromise national and regional development efforts, and turn back the clock on decades of progress.  

A PPR outbreak is an emergency due to its rapid spread and high animal mortality rate. Fatal diseases of small ruminants, such as PPR, affect the already vulnerable livelihoods and can decimate the savings of poor populations, in particular in pastoral areas. People become desperate when they lose their assets. PPR outbreaks, and the desperation due to the loss, can therefore trigger turmoil, migration, and volatile security situations. Eradicating PPR will increase sustainability, alleviate poverty, improve the resilience of poor pastoralists and their communities, enable them to better cope with other shocks and threats, prevent forced migration and mitigate extremist trends. 

Key facts

• Sheep and goats are two of the major livestock species kept and cared for by many of the smallholder farmers in Sub- Saharan africa.
• PPR threatens about 80 percent of the regional small ruminant population of nearly 4 billion animals.
• PPR was first described in 1942 in Côte d'Ivoire. 
• PPR has been confirmed in over 70 countries in large areas of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and is now spreading to new countries.

How Is the disease spread? (Mitchell et al., 2017; Kaukarbayevich, 2009)

1. The disease can be spread through the eyes, nose, mouth secretions, faces, etc. of sick animals. 
2. Animals that come in contact with sick animals can infect healthy animals through breathing. 
3. The disease can also infect healthy animals through sneezing and coughing of sick animals. 
4. The disease can also be spread through water, food containers and furniture used by sick animals. 
5. Animals that have germs in their body but have not yet shown symptoms of the disease can transmit the disease from one place to another. 
6. However, the hope is that the germs of this disease cannot survive outside the body for long.

What are the symptoms of this disease? (Rezazadeh, Madadgar and Poureini, 2016; Jagtap et al., 2012; Elzein et al., 2004)

1. The symptoms of common PPR disease appear within 3-6 days of entering the body. 
2. Body temperature can suddenly rise a lot. These temperatures can range from 105 degrees to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. 
3. The goat’s nose, mouth, and eyes are the first to produce a thin liquid. Later it becomes thick and yellow. Gradually it can dry out and close the nostrils. This can cause shortness of breath in the animal. 

4. The eyes of the sick animal can also be affected by this disease. In that case, the goat’s eyelids may swell. Many times the eyelids may close due to the secretion of dense granular material. 
5. At one stage of the disease, the face may become swollen. The soft tissues inside the mouth may be affected. The flesh at the base of the teeth can cause muscle sores. In addition, gaps can form in the middle of the teeth, inside the mouth, on the palate, on the lips, on the tongue. 
6. Severe diarrhea can often occur in a sick animal. Diarrhea causes a lot of fluid to leak out of the body. As a result, the animal suffers from dehydration. The animal may also die due to the lack of water. 
7. The sick animal loses weight. The animal is slowly drying up. 
8. In goats infected with PPR, shortness of breath occurs within a few days of becoming ill. 
9. The animal may die within five to ten days of becoming ill. 
10. If the infected goat is pregnant, there is a possibility of miscarriage. 
11. Younger animals are more susceptible to this disease. 
12. The disease is more prevalent in goats than in sheep 

References

http://www.fao.org/ppr/background/what-is-ppr/en/

Aguilar, X. F., Fine, A. E., Pruvot, M., Njeumi, F., Walzer, C., Kock, R. and Shiilegdamba, E. (2018) 'PPR virus threatens wildlife conservation', Science, 362(6411), pp. 165-166.

Bao, J., Wang, Z., Li, L., Wu, X., Sang, P., Wu, G., Ding, G., Suo, L., Liu, C. and Wang, J. (2011) 'Detection and genetic characterization of peste des petits ruminants virus in free-living bharals (Pseudois nayaur) in Tibet, China', Research in veterinary science, 90(2), pp. 238-240.

Elzein, E. A., Housawi, F., Bashareek, Y., Gameel, A., Al‐Afaleq, A. and Anderson, E. (2004) 'Severe PPR Infection in Gazelles kept under semi‐free range conditions', Journal of Veterinary Medicine, Series B, 51(2), pp. 68-71.

Jagtap, S. P., Rajak, K. K., Garg, U. K., Sen, A., Bhanuprakash, V., Sudhakar, S. B., Balamurugan, V., Patel, A., Ahuja, A. and Singh, R. K. (2012) 'Effect of immunosuppression on pathogenesis of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) virus infection in goats', Microbial pathogenesis, 52(4), pp. 217-226.

Kaukarbayevich, K. Z. (2009) 'Epizootological analysis of PPR spread on African continent and in Asian countries', African Journal of Agricultural Research, 4(9), pp. 787-790.

Mitchell, M. D., Beyeler, W. E., Finley, P. and Finley, M. (2017) 'Modeling Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) Disease Propagation and Control Strategies Using Memoryless State Transitions', Applied Science and Innovative Research, 1(SAND-2015-11001J).

Munir, M. (2015) Peste des petits ruminants virus. Springer.

Rezazadeh, F., Madadgar, O. and Poureini, F. (2016) 'Study of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in some border areas of Iran by Nested-PCR'.

Roger, F., Guebre Yesus, M., Libeau, G., Diallo, A., Yigezu, L. M. and Yilma, T. (2001) 'Detection of antibodies of rinderpest and peste des petits ruminants viruses (Paramyxoviridae, Morbillivirus) during a new epizootic disease in Ethiopian camels (Camelus dromedarius)'.