Persistent detection of peste de petits ruminants antigen in the faeces of recovered goats

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) disease was confirmed in West African Dwarf goats. They were managed symptomatically with antibiotics and antidarrhoeics. Following clinical recovery, faeces were collected every week from 40 recovered goats to monitor excretion of the PPR virus haemagglutinins in their faeces. All the 40 recovered goats shed the PPR virus haemagglutinins for 11 weeks post recovery. Nine goats (22.5%) continued shedding the viral antigen 12 weeks post recovery. There was correlation between weekly mean haemagglutination titre of the PPR virus and time post recovery with r = -0.7504 (p < 0.01).