What is Peste Des Petits Ruminants (PPR)?

About is Peste Des Petits Ruminants (PPR):

 

• PPR is a highly contagious viral disease of sheep and goats with high mortality.
• It is caused by a virus of the family paramyxoviridae and genus morbillivirus. It is closely related to other members of the genus, including the rinderpest virus, measles virus, and canine distemper virus.
• Symptoms:
  • PPRV causes disease with an array of clinical signs. It also causes immunosuppression, which makes affected animals more likely to pick up other infections.
  • Clinical signs of PPR: Fever, Eye and nasal discharges, Sores in the mouth, Diarrhoea, Listlessness, Respiratory signs (coughing and pneumonia), Abortion and death, with case fatality rates as high as 90% (though more commonly around 20%).
• Transmission:
  • PPR is mainly spread during close contact when a susceptible animal inhales the virus from infected animals’ coughing and sneezing.
  • Transmission can also occur indirectly through contact with infected objects (fomites) such as feed troughs, bedding etc.
  • Sources of PPRV include secretions from the eyes, nose, and mouth of infected animals, as well as their faeces.
• Once introduced, the virus can infect up to 90 percent of an animal herd, and the disease kills anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of infected animals. 
• The PPR virus does not infect humans.
• Disease prevalence:
  • PPR was first described in 1942 in Côte d'Ivoire. Since then the disease has spread to large regions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
  • In India, the disease outbreaks have been reported in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh.
• Currently, a global initiative driven by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) exists to eradicate PPR by 2030.

 

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Q1) What is immunosuppression?

The suppression of the body’s innate ability to ward off disease and infection is known as immunosuppression. This suppression may be the result of a disease that targets the immune system, such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), or as a consequence of pharmaceutical agents used to fight certain conditions, like cancer.

Source: Explainer: Goat plague sends alarm bells ringing in Himachal Pradesh