BackgroundEthiopia has the second largest human population in Africa and the largest livestock population on the continent. About 80% of Ethiopians are dependent on agriculture and have direct contact with livestock or other domestic animals. As a result, the country is vulnerable to the spread of zoonotic diseases. As the first step of the country's engagement in the Global Health Security Agenda, a zoonotic disease prioritization workshop was held to identify significant zoonotic diseases of mutual concern for animal and human health agencies.MethodsA semi-quantitative tool developed by the US CDC was used for prioritization of zoonotic diseases. Workshop participants representing human, animal, and environmental health ministries were selected as core decision-making participants. Over 300 articles describing the zoonotic diseases considered at the workshop were reviewed for disease specific information on prevalence, morbidity, mortality, and DALYs for Ethiopia or the East Africa region.Committee members individually ranked the importance of each criterion to generate a final group weight for each criterion.ResultsForty-three zoonotic diseases were evaluated. Criteria selected in order of importance were: 1)severity of disease in humans, 2)proportion of human disease attributed to animal exposure, 3)burden of animal disease, 4)availability of interventions, and 5)existing inter-sectoral collaboration. Based on the results from the decision tree analysis and subsequent discussion, participants identified the following five priority zoonotic diseases: rabies, anthrax, brucellosis, leptospirosis, and echinococcosis.DiscussionMulti-sectoral collaborations strengthen disease surveillance system development in humans and animals, enhance laboratory capacity, and support implementation of prevention and control strategies. To facilitate this, the creation of a One Health-focused Zoonotic Disease Unit is recommended. Enhancement of public health and veterinary laboratories, joint outbreak and surveillance activities, and intersectoral linkages created to tackle the prioritized zoonotic diseases will undoubtedly prepare the country to effectively address newly emerging zoonotic diseases.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease of small ruminants; it emerged in countries previously free of the disease following the eradication of rinderpest. PPR is classified by international organizations as the next priority animal disease for global eradication campaign. Assessment of the local situations is the first step in the eradication efforts. The objective of this study was to investigate and compare the seroprevalence of PPR in cattle, sheep, and goats under two livestock production systems in Ethiopia: North Shewa zone of Amhara region represents a highland sedentary life style characterized by mixed livestock-crop production system; Zone Three of Afar region represents a lowland nomadic life style characterized by pastoral livestock production system. N-competitive ELISA PPR test was performed on sera from 2,993 animals ≥6 months old sampled at watering and grazing points. Multivariable logistic regression models comparing the seropositivity between the two production systems were built by classifying doubtful results as positive, negative, or excluding them from the data. The odds ratio (OR) comparing overall PPR seroprevalence in the sedentary North Shewa Zone compared to the nomadic Zone Three ranged from 19 to 27 (P < 0.001), depending on how doubtful results were classified, which contrasts with what has been reported in the literature. This is not likely to be related solely to vaccination, since seroprevalences in cattle and small ruminants were similarly high or low in the respective zones (0–4% for Zone Three and 20–40% for North Shewa Zone), and cattle were not likely to be vaccinated. The OR of seropositivity for goats compared to cattle ranged from 1.9 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3–2.7; P < 0.001] to 2.2 (95% CI: 1.5–3.1; P < 0.001) when doubtful results were excluded or classified as negative, respectively. When doubtful results were classified as positive, association between seropositivity and animal species was not significant (P > 0.05). Our results suggest to further investigate cattle as sentinel animals for PPR surveillance.

Globally, 10,000-100,000 human anthrax incidences occur annually with significant number of cases from Chad, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and India. Even though anthrax is a reportable disease in Ethiopia, data have not been analyzed and interpreted for public health intervention. During the past five years, 2009-2013, human and animal anthrax surveillance data were officially requested and received from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the Ministry of Agriculture respectively (Reference). The data were analyzed by time and place using micro soft Excel and Epi- info 7.3.1. A total of 5,197 human and 26,737 animal anthrax cases (human to animal ratio 1:5) were reported from 2009 to 2013 with 86 human anthrax deaths (Case Fatality Rate:1.7 %). The National human prevalence was found to be 1.3 per 100,000 populations per five years, while it was 6.7, 2.3, 1.5 and 0.2 in Tigray, Amhara, SNNP and Oromia regions respectively. Zero human case was reported from pastoralist regions with 55-216 animal cases (Afar, Somali and Benshangul Gumuz). The human prevalence was high in May followed by February (0.20 and 0.15 per 100,000 populations per year respectively) This data analysis revealed that less number of human anthrax cases were reported than animal cases (ratio 1:5) in Ethiopia. The pastoralist areas where humans and animals co-exist closely did not report a single human case for the last five years. To determine the magnitude of anthrax in Ethiopia both human and animal surveillance system should be strengthened giving due attention to pastoralist areas. Prevention intervention should be in place in areas where the prevalence of the disease is high. Keywords: Animal, Anthrax, Ethiopia, Human, Surveillance.