Peste Des Petits Ruminants (Animal)

Primary reference(s)

FAO, 2020. Peste des petits ruminants. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Accessed 18 October 2020.

OIE, 2020. Terrestrial Animal Health Code: Infection with Peste des petits ruminants virus. Chapter 14.7. World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Accessed 18 October 2020.

Additional scientific description

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. Once newly introduced, the virus can infect up to 90% of a small ruminant flock, and the disease kills anywhere up to 70% of infected animals (FAO, 2020).

PPR was first described in 1942 in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Since then the disease has spread to large regions of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Today, more than 70 countries are affected or at high risk and many more are without an official PPR status. PPR infected and at risk countries are home to approximately 1.7 billion heads – around 80% – of the global population of sheep and goats (FAO, 2020).

PPR causes annual economic losses of up to USD 2.1 billion. Looking beyond this figure, 300 million families are at risk of losing their livelihoods, food security, and employment opportunities. Moreover, small ruminants and their products are internationally traded commodities, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. PPR considerably affects export earnings and creates supply shortages. The inability of families, communities, and institutions to anticipate, absorb, or recover from PPR can compromise national and regional development efforts, and reverse decades of progress (FAO, 2020).

Until recently, this virus was named simply Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV); the official name of this virus was changed in 2016 to small ruminant morbillivirus (SRM). However, it is still commonly known as PPRV by people working in the field. It is antigenically similar to rinderpest virus, measles virus and canine distemper virus. It is transmitted by direct contact with diseased animals. PPR also occurs in some wildlife species, which can act as a source of infection for domestic small ruminants. PPR-infected countries are excluded from international trade of live small ruminants (OIE, 2020a).

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, especially in pastoral areas. People become desperate when they lose their assets. PPR outbreaks, and the desperation due to the loss, can trigger turmoil, migration, and volatile security situations (FAO, 2020).

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 (FAO, 2020).

As an example, Mongolia reported its first-ever PPR outbreaks in sheep and goat populations in September 2016. In the absence of an adequate response by local veterinary services, the disease rapidly spread, devastating rural livelihoods, and disrupting exports and value chains. In December 2016, PPR spilled over to wild antelope species killing up to 60% of the Saiga antelope population, a critically endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (FAO, 2020).

Transmission of PPR is mainly by aerosol or direct contact between animals living in close quarters and via fomites spreading infection via bedding, feed, pasture and water troughs (OIE, 2020a).

PPR is not a zoonotic infection. There is no known risk of human infection with PPR virus (FAO, 2020).

Metrics and numeric limits

Peste des Petits Ruminants is notifiable to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) under the Terrestrial Animal Health Code (OIE, 2020b).

Examples of drivers, outcomes and risk management

Drivers: introduction of infected animal to a naive population (OIE, 2020a,b).

Outcomes: death of infected animals, spread of infection, trade ban (OIE, 2020a,b).

Risk management: vaccination program, movement control, improve biosecurity (OIE, 2020a,b).

Eradicating PPR is a major advance towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (UNDESA, no date). A one-time vaccination can immunise ruminants for life against PPR or sheep and goat plague.