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Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an important economically transboundary disease of sheep and goats caused by a virus which belongs to the genus Morbillivirus. This genus, in the family Paramyxoviridae, also includes the measles virus (MV), canine distemper virus (CDV), rinderpest virus (RPV), and marine mammal viruses. One of the main features of these viruses is the severe transient lymphopaenia and immunosuppression they induce in their respective hosts, thereby favouring secondary bacterial and parasitic infections. This lymphopaenia is probably accounted for by the fact that lymphoid cells are the main targets of the morbilliviruses. In early 2000, it was demonstrated that a transmembrane glycoprotein of the immunoglobulin superfamily which is present on the surface of lymphoid cells, the signalling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM), is used as cellular receptor by MV, CDV and RPV. Wild-type strains of these viruses can be isolated and propagated efficiently in non-lymphoid cells expressing this protein. The present study has demonstrated that monkey CV1 cells expressing goat SLAM are also highly efficient for isolating PPRV from pathological samples. This finding suggests that SLAM, as is in the case for MV, CDV and RPV, is also a receptor for PPRV.

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