Abstract
Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease of domestic and wild small ruminants causing high morbidity and mortality (up to 100%) and thus, has serious socioeconomic implications. In Pakistan, estimated losses due to PPR during the year 2012-13 were worth Pakistan Rs. 31.51 billion. Close contact between infected and susceptible animal is an important route of transmission of PPR. Therefore, carrier animals play an important role in unnoticed transmission of the disease. Limited information is available about the persistence of PPR virus in goats. Hence, the objective of the study was to investigate the persistence of PPR virus (PPRV) in goats recovered from PPR. A suspected PPR outbreak in sub-urban area of Lahore district of the Punjab Province in Pakistan was investigated. The outbreak was confirmed as PPR after analyzing appropriate samples (nasal/ocular swabs, fecal and tissue samples) collected from the infected animals. A longitudinal study was conducted over a period of 16 weeks to ascertain the persistence of PPRV in the fecal samples of recovered goats (n=96) collected at 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after the outbreak. Samples were analyzed using RT-PCR. Of the 96 fecal samples, 46, 37, 29 and 7 goats remained positive for PPRV genome at 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after recovery, respectively. The results revealed the detection of PPRV genome in goats at 16 weeks after recovery. Therefore, it can be concluded that PPR disease has a carrier potential and goats recovered from PPR infection may act as source of carrier animals.
Highlights
Infectious viral diseases of small ruminants cause considerable economic losses and have significant socio-economic impact
PPR is caused by Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV)
We report a longitudinal and systematic study that has objective to determine the duration of detection of PPRV in the animals recovered from PPR
Summary
Infectious viral diseases of small ruminants (sheep/goats) cause considerable economic losses and have significant socio-economic impact. We report a longitudinal and systematic study that has objective to determine the duration of detection of PPRV in the animals recovered from PPR. Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) Outbreak Confirmation RNA Extraction: Total RNA was extracted from 140 μl of homogenate of tissue/swab material infected with PPRV using a RNeasy kit (Qiagen GmbH, Hilden, Germany).
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