Peste des Petits Ruminants Infection among Cattle and Wildlife in Northern Tanzania

Tiziana Lembo, Christopher Oura, Satya Parida, Richard Hoare, Lorraine Frost, Robert Fyumagwa, Fredrick Kivaria, Chobi Chubwa, Richard Kock, Sarah Cleaveland¹

, and Carrie Batten¹

Author affiliations: University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK (T. Lembo, S. Cleaveland); School of Veterinary Medicine, The University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies (C. Oura); The Pirbright Institute, Woking, UK (S. Parida, L. Frost, C. Batten); Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Arusha, Tanzania ( R. Hoare, R. Fyumagwa); Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (F. Kivaria, C. Chubwa); The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, UK (R. Kock).

Abstract

We investigated peste des petits ruminants (PPR) infection in cattle and wildlife in northern Tanzania. No wildlife from protected ecosystems were seropositive. However, cattle from villages where an outbreak had occurred among small ruminants showed high PPR seropositivity, indicating that spillover infection affects cattle. Thus, cattle could be of value for PPR serosurveillance.

Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) is a highly contagious morbillivirus (genus Morbillivirus, family Paramyxoviridae) that is closely related to rinderpest virus. PPRV primarily affects sheep and goats in Africa, Middle East, and Asia but can infect a wide range of other domestic and nondomestic species (1–4). For example, cattle have been found to be seropositive for the virus (1,2), and PPRV was isolated from subclinically infected cattle 3 weeks after virus transmission from experimentally infected goats (R.K. Singh, pers. comm.). This finding points to the need for further investigation of the role of cattle in peste des petits ruminants (PPR) disease outbreaks. In addition, little is known about natural patterns of PPR in free-ranging African wildlife. Morbilliviruses can switch hosts, and new ecologic niches created by the eradication of rinderpest may provide opportunities for PPR emergence in new hosts (4,5).
First identified in West Africa in the 1940s, PPR is now widespread across much of sub-Saharan Africa. High rates of death from PPR can have dramatic economic consequences, especially in rural African communities whose livelihoods rely on small ruminant livestock production (6). The potentially devastating effect of new introductions has raised considerable concerns for local and regional economies (6). PPR was first confirmed in Tanzania in 2008 in the country’s northern regions. However, the virus, which was introduced into Tanzania by southward spread from neighboring countries, was probably in Tanzania long before official confirmation of the disease (7,8).