Risk Factors Associated with Pestedes Petits Ruminants (PPR) in Sheep and Goats in Makurdi, Benue State

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1. Abstract Purpose. Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease of sheep and goats. The disease is considered to be one of the main constraints to the productivity of small ruminants in the Sub-Saharan countries including Nigeria and the globe at large. This work is aimed at assessing the risk factors associated with the prevalence of PPR in Makurdi. <span style=font-size: 10.0pt;font-family: times= new= roman,serif;mso-fareast-font-family:arial= unicode= ms=> Methods: In this study, the location of interest (Makurdi) was divided into four blocks u sing Random block sampling method, with each township area representing a block. A total of 152 questionnaires were distributed in this study to assess the association of eleven risk factors (Locality, husbandry system, housing, herd size and composition, species, breed, sex, age, climate change/season, medication/vaccination, and source of the animal) with the occurrence of PPR in small ruminant’s population. <span style=font-size: 10.0pt;font-family: times= new= roman,serif=> Results: Ten different factors (with p-value ≤ 0.05) were found to be associated with PPR in Makurdi. The overall prevalence of PPR in Makurdi was found to be 51.3%. The incidence of PPR was found to be very high in dry season than rainy season. Demographically, animals less than 12 months of age and mostly female animals were most affected by PPR, and goats were found to be highly susceptible to PPR than sheep. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that PPR is an important goat and sheep disease in the studied area. <span style=font-size: 10.0pt;font-family: times= new= roman,serif;color:black=> Thus, an appropriate control strategy has to be designed and applied, which could involve prevention of contact with infected goats and vaccination against the PPR virus. <span style=font-size: 10.0pt;font-family: times= new= roman,serif;color:black=> <span style=font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: times= new= roman=>2. Keywords <span style=font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: meiryo= ui=>: PPR; Risk Factors; Ruminants