Peste des petits ruminants in goats in India

PESTE des petits ruminants (PPR), or goat plague, is a viral contagion of goats and, less commonly, of sheep, caused by the Morbillivirus genus of the Paramyxoviridae family. The virus is biologically and antigenically related to rinderpest (RP) virus and clinically it mimics RP in goats. The disease is widely distributed in equatorial Africa and the Arabian peninsula (Taylor 1984), India (Shaila and others 1989), Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia (Roeder and others 1994). In Africa and Arabia only goats have been affected, but in India the disease has been detected in sheep (Shaila and others 1989) and all the subsequent outbreaks have occurred in sheep (Shaila, unpublished results). Following field reports on goat mortality in nine villages in the Latur District of Maharashtra State during July to September 1994, a team from the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Udgir investigated the aetiology and collected necropsy materials and sera for diagnosis. The study revealed that only goats (of all ages) were affected. Sheep, cattle and buffaloes grazing alongside goats did not show any type of illness. Most of the affected goat flocks showed concurrent infections of psoroptic, sarcoptic and demodectic mange. RP vaccination was being carried out in this area as a part of a national project on rinderpest eradication. As a result, many of the small ruminants were being given tissue culture RP vaccine.