The threat of peste des petits ruminants: progress in vaccine development for disease control

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious animal disease caused by a virus in the genus Morbillivirus, family Paramyxoviridae. This infection is responsible for high morbidity and mortality in sheep and goats and in some small wild ruminant species. The huge number of small ruminants, which are reared in the endemic areas makes PPR a serious disease threatening the livelihood of poor farmers. Taking advantage of the closely relationship between rinderpest and PPR viruses, the attenuated rinderpest vaccine was used in the control of PPR. It is now replaced by the homologous attenuated PPR vaccine. Unfortunately, animals that have received this vaccine cannot be distinguished serologically from infected animals. With the advent of DNA recombinant technology, efforts are being made to develop effective PPR marker vaccines to enable such differentiation and which would allow countries to implement both vaccination and disease surveillance programmes at the same time.