Published Date: 2008-07-24 15:00:27
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Peste des petits ruminants - Morocco: ovine, OIE
Archive Number: 20080724.2248

PESTE DES PETITS RUMINANTS - MOROCCO: OVINE, OIE
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Date: Wed 23 Jul 2008
Source: OIE, WAHID (World Animal Health Information Database) [edited]
<http://www.oie.int/wahid-prod/public.php?page=event_summary&reportid=7212>


Peste des petits ruminants, Morocco
-----------------------------------
Information received on 23 Jul 2008 from Mr Hamid Benazzou, Ministere
de l'agriculture, du developpement rural et des peches maritimes,
directeur de l'elevage, Rabat, Morocco

Summary
Report type: immediate notification
Start date: 12 Jun 2008
Date of first confirmation of the event: 18 Jul 2008
Report date: 23 Jul 2008
Date submitted to OIE: 23 Jul 2008
Reason for notification: 1st occurrence of a listed disease
Causal agent: Peste des petits ruminants virus
Nature of diagnosis: suspicion, clinical, laboratory (basic), necropsy
This event pertains to the whole country

New outbreaks
Summary of outbreaks
Total outbreaks: 2
Outbreak Location(s):
1. Centre-Morocco (Douar Sidi Bettache centre, Commune rurale Sidi
Bettache, Benslimane)
2. Centre-North (Douar Ouled M'hamed, Commune rurale Ain Chkef, Moulay Yacoub)

Affected animals
Species: sheep
Susceptible: 540
Cases: 72
Deaths: 22
Destroyed: 34
Slaughtered: 0

Epidemiology
Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection: unknown or inconclusive

Control measures
Measures already applied:
- quarantine
- disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s)
- modified stamping out
- no vaccination [see comment]
- no treatment of affected animals
Measures to be applied: screening

Diagnostic test results
Laboratory name and type: Biopharma (national laboratory)
Tests and results
Species: sheep
Test: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
Test date: 18 Jul 2008
Result: positive

Future reporting
The event is continuing. Weekly follow-up reports will be submitted.

--
Communicated by:
OIE Information Department
<information.dept@oie.int>

[Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), also called Kata (a vernacular
west-African name), pseudorinderpest, and stomatitis-pneumoenteritis
complex, is an acute contagious disease of small ruminants. Goats and
sheep are the species primarily affected, with highest pathogenicity
in goats. PPR is caused by a paramyxovirus of the genus
_Morbillivirus_. It is antigenically very similar to the rinderpest
virus.

Clinical signs are similar to rinderpest in cattle, though PPR is
characterised by a stronger involvement of the respiratory system; the
2 organisms are closely related. Clinical signs may include fever,
necrotic stomatitis [death of tissue of the mouth - Mod.JW],
gastroenteritis, and bronchopneumonia.

The disease occurs in Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian
subcontinent. Outbreaks are known to be common in India, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, recently spreading to Tibet.
The only [other] north African country so far known to be infected is
Egypt; surveillance in the other regional countries deserves
consideration. No country, so far, is known to have managed to
successfully eradicate PPR once it was introduced. This is probably
the reason for the widespread use of vaccination in such countries, as
recently done also in the newly infected Tibet.

The following text, extracted from a commentary sent to ProMED-mail
in 1998 (archive no. 19981012.2007) by one of the world's leading
experts on PPR, Dr Adama Diallo, still maintains its actuality and
deserves attention:

"PPR can be overlooked officially (for economic reasons) but is quite
easy to diagnose clinically. This is true for people who are aware of
the disease. Any PPR diagnosis based on clinical signs should be
considered as provisional until a laboratory test confirmation.
Clinically, PPR could be confused with rinderpest, contagious caprine
pleuropneumonia, and pasteurellosis (this latter coexisting with PPRV
infection in almost all acute cases).

Considered for a long time as a disease of West African countries,
PPR is now widespread in Africa in an area lying between Sahara and
Equator, in the Middle East, and in Southwest Asia. The fact that a
rinderpest-like disease was occurring in small ruminants population
in countries where bovine rinderpest was eradicated and the advent of
specific diagnostic tests, have allowed to build up more information
about PPR. The fact that our knowledge on this disease has progressed
eastwards from West Africa to Asia doesn't mean at all that the
diffusion of the virus has been in that direction: apart from the
situation in the Middle East, the animal trade routes and the
geographical distribution of the different PPRV lineages are not
correlating with the direction by which the information has grown.

"Indeed, in Cirad-emvt (Montpellier, France), an OIE Reference
Laboratory for PPR, we have a rich collection of PPRV strains
collected from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The data we have
got from partial sequencing of NP gene of those PPRV strains (and of
cDNA amplified from different PPR pathological samples sent to us)
have allowed us to define 4 main PPRV lineages: 3 being in Africa.
Both lineage III (a lineage found in East Africa) and lineage IV
(Asian lineage) are coexisting in the Middle East, a finding that can
be expected according to the animal trade routes.

"The mortality of PPR is very variable (from 0 percent to 90 percent,
subclinical infection occurring very frequently). In some outbreaks
in Africa, the rate of mortality is not exceeding 20 percent
sometimes. Animal species, animal breeds and maybe the climate are
important factors in the severity of the PPR outbreaks."

PPR does not infect man.

It will be interesting to note if the current, newly introduced PPRV
in Morocco, is (as apparently expected) of the West African lineage,
or otherwise.

The Moroccan OIE notification includes a map, which shows the 2
outbreaks locations. OIE's world PPR distribution map, covering the
period July-December 2007, is available at
<http://www.oie.int/wahid-prod/public.php?page=disease_status_map&disease_type=Terrestrial&disease_id=5&empty=999999&sta_method=semesterly&selected_start_year=2007&selected_report_period=2&selected_start_month=1&page=disease_status_map&date_submit=OK>.
- Mod.AS]

See Also

Peste des petits ruminants - China (02): (Tibet), OIE 20080713.2134
Peste des petits ruminants - Kenya: (Rift Valley) 20080403.1230
2007
----
Peste des petits ruminants - Uganda (Moroto): OIE 20070731.2471
Peste des petits ruminants - China (Tibet): OIE 20070727.2419
Peste des petits ruminants - Nepal: suspected, RFI 20070423.1324
Peste des petits ruminants - Uganda (Karamoja): susp. 20070325.1037
Peste des petits ruminants - Kenya (Rift Valley): OIE 20070117.0226
2006
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Peste des petits ruminants - Congo Rep: OIE 20060805.2170
2005
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Peste des petits ruminants, caprine, 2004 - Israel: OIE 20050108.0062
2004
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Peste des petits ruminants - Turkey (Thrace): susp. 20041031.2937
2002
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Peste des petit ruminants - Ethiopia 20020919.5353
Peste des petits ruminants - Bangladesh 20020515.4208
Peste des petits ruminants - Saudi Arabia: OIE 20020408.3902
2000
----
Peste des petits ruminants - Cyprus 20000620.1003
1998
----
Peste des petits ruminants: origin & distribution(02) 19981012.2007
Peste des petits ruminants: origin & distribution 19980926.1926
........................................arn/mj/jw
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