Clinical and Para‐clinical Findings of a Recent Outbreaks of Peste des Petits Ruminants in Iran

Abstract

Summary Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious and infectious viral disease of domestic and wild small ruminants characterized by fever, erosive stomatitis, conjunctivitis, gastroenteritis and pneumonia. Goats are usually more severely affected than sheep. Peste des petits ruminants is caused by a paramyxovirus of the Morbillivirus genus. In March 2004, a flock of sheep in Tehran province with 430 deaths was visited. According to the history taken from the owner, at disease onset most of the deaths were recorded from adult sheep, 3 weeks later lambs (2 weeks to 4 months of age) showed the highest death rate. All animals from 3 months age received rinderpest vaccine 1 month after onset. Many of the lambs died just a few hours after their first sucking of the colostrum from infected mothers. Most of them showed very acute form of disease and died a few hours after onset of clinical signs. In clinical examinations most of the cases showed severe depression, high fever (41°C), anorexia, mocopulurent nasal discharge, erosive and necrotic stomatitis (dental path, hard palate and cheeks), diarrhoea and dehydration. Para‐clinical findings including histopathological, serological and haematological examinations also confirmed the presence of PPR in this flock. PPR outbreaks have been frequent in Iran in recent years. Further, we suggest that PPR is not a recent invader of Iran. The main difference in clinical signs between this outbreak and the same in other reports is that goats did not show any obvious signs of PPR. This might be due to the number of the goats (>1% of the flock) and keeping them separate from the sheep. The present article reviews the details of this outbreak in Iran.

Global distribution of peste des petits ruminants virus and prospects for improved diagnosis and control

“…Iran has also had PPRV circulating for many years with initial detection back in 1995, leading to extensive spread of the virus across the country at a huge economic cost (Bazarghani et al, 2006). Further episodes of PPRV disease in Iran are reviewed by Abdollahpour et al (2006). More recently in 2009, virus from Iran has been characterized at the genetic level, being grouped with lineage IV viruses (Fig.…”

Peste Des Petits Ruminants (PPR) Virus Infections in Goats in the Eastern Anatolia of Turkey

“…PPR has been reported in a number of countries in the region including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran and India 20,24, 43,44 . Although the clinical and postmortem findings may be sufficient for the diagnosis of PPR in the endemic areas, yet labaratory confirmation is essential for definitive diagnosis.…”

Detection of Peste Des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV) Genome from Nasal Swabs of Dogs

“…PPR was first described in Cote d' Ivoire in 1942, the disease has progressed across West Africa, the Middle East, the Arabian peninsula, and parts of Asia [4]. Outbreaks of PPR are now common in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan [1]. It is included in a group of economically important animal diseases in the new classification of OIE [22].…”