Seroprevalence of peste des petits ruminants in sheep and goats in Eastern India

The seroprevalence study of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in small ruminants in Bihar and Odisha states in the Eastern region of India was carried out. A total of 1836 serum samples were collected from sheep (n = 648) and goats (n = 1188) from various epidemiological units (n = 112) in these states by a two-stage sampling plan during April 2017-March 2018. These samples were tested for the detection of virus antibodies by PPR competitive ELISA kit. The results revealed that the seroprevalence of PPR in sheep and goats in Bihar and Odisha states was 30.91% and 54.20%, respectively. Further, the chi-square analysis showed that the association exists between the presence of PPR virus antibodies in the goats (χ² = 93.28, p < 0.01) and between the states (χ² = 82.61, p < 0.01). This cross-sectional serosurvey also infers that the sheep and goats in most of the epi-units (n = 87) had < 70% of PPR virus antibodies prevalence. This warrants the intensive continuous mass vaccination program for a few more years to achieve the desired level of population immunity (epidemiological units protection level) and active surveillance to make these states free from PPR in the Eastern region of India.