20/11/2022
Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), also known as sheep and goat plague, is a highly contagious animal disease caused by a virus belonging to the genus Morbillivirus, family Paramixoviridae. PPR was first described in 1942 in C├┤te d'Ivoire, West Africa and has since spread to large regions in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and more recently to North Africa and the Sahel. The virus can infect up to 90 percent of an animal population and the disease kills anywhere from 40-70 percent of infected animals. There is no known cure for PPR and it does not infect humans. Treatment focuses on reducing symptoms and preventing secondary infections.
PPR not only causes economic losses up to USD 2.1 billion per year, but it also affects 300 million families who are at risk of losing their livelihoods, food security, and employment opportunities. To make matters worse, small ruminants and their products are internationally traded commodities, which means that PPR can have a negative impact on export earnings and create supply shortages. When families, communities, and institutions are unable to anticipate, absorb, or recover from PPR, it can undermine national and regional development efforts - effectively setting back progress that has been made over the years.PPR outbreaks are dangerous due to the virus's ability to spread quickly and kill a high number of animals. Diseases that kill livestock, like PPR, have a devastating effect on the already vulnerable livelihoods of poor populations, especially in pastoral areas. People become desperate when they lose their assets and can't provide for themselves or their families. This desperation caused by PPR outbreaks can lead to migrations, volatile security situations, and other forms of turmoil. Eradicating PPR will increase sustainability, alleviate poverty, improve the resilience of poor pastoralists and their communities.
