Peste Des Petits Ruminants in Benin: Persistence of a Single Virus Genotype in the Country for Over 42 Years

Abstract

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a contagious and often fatal disease affecting sheep and goats. Currently, it is endemic in Africa, the Middle and Near East, the Indian subcontinent and China. Understanding the molecular epidemiology and evolution of PPR virus (PPRV) can assist in the control of the transboundary spread of this economically important disease. We isolated PPRV from pathological and swab samples collected 42 years apart (1969 and 2011) in Benin, West Africa, and sequenced the full genome of two isolates (Benin/B1/1969 and Benin/10/2011). Phylogenetic analysis showed that all of the characterized isolates clustered within viral lineage II and that the 2011 isolates fell into two distinct subgroups. Comparison of the full genome sequences revealed a 95.3% identity at the nucleotide level, while at the protein level, the matrix protein was the most conserved between the two viruses with an identity of 99.7% and only one amino acid substitution over the 42-year sampling period. An analysis of specific amino acid residues of known or putative function did not identify any significant changes between the two viruses. A molecular clock analysis of complete PPRV genomes revealed that the lineage II viruses sampled here arose in the early 1960s and that these viruses have likely persisted in Benin since this time.

First report and characterization of peste des petits ruminants virus in Liberia, West Africa

“…The sequence has been deposited in GenBank under accession number KU236379. Analysis of the full genome sequence of Lib/2015 revealed that it consisted of 15,948 bp with a 107 nt genome promoter region at the 3′ end followed by the transcription units for the N, P, M, F, H and L proteins and the anti-genome promoter at the 5′ end as seen previously for other PPRVs (Dundon et al 2014a(Dundon et al , b, 2015aAdombi et al 2016 (Dundon et al 2014a(Dundon et al , b, 2015aAdombi et al 2016). These include nuclear export and localization signals and the F protein cleavage site GRRTRR.…”

“…Although the PPRV from Sierra Leone is less related to Lib/2015 it is possible that different lineage II subclades are circulating in the country which may be more similar to Lib/2015; a situation that has recently been reported in Benin and Nigeria (Woma et al 2015;Adombi et al 2016). Therefore, in order to clarify the present PPR situation in Liberia, further similar studies should be carried out in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone given the high cross-border movement of live animals for trade.…”

“…It is evident from this study that there is a close relationship between the virus isolated in Côte d'Ivoire in 2009 and that from Liberia in 2015 which indicates a common origin. Other countries in the region in which PPRV has been partially characterized are Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali, Ghana, Benin and Senegal (Munir et al 2012;Dundon et al 2014a;Salami et al 2014;Adombi et al 2016) but none of these viruses reveal the same similarity to Lib/ 2015 as the virus from Côte d'Ivoire does. Indeed, a segment of the N gene of an isolate which was collected in 2009 in Sierra Leone (Munir et al 2012) only shows 98.1 % identity with the N gene of Lib/2015.…”

Enhanced immunosurveillance for animal morbilliviruses using vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) pseudotypes

“…Primary PPRV H and F cDNAs were amplified from viral RNA. PPRV containing supernatants from cultures of PPRV isolates Senegal 1969 [26] (lineage I), Benin 2010 [27] (lineage II), Kenya 2011 [28] (lineage III) and Ethiopia 2010 (lineage IV, Joint FAO/IAEA PPRV Bank, Seibersdorf, Austria) were mixed with RLT lysis buffer (QIAgen) and RNA prepared as per manufacturer’s instructions using a QIAamp Viral RNA Mini kit (QIAgen). This RNA was then used to prepare first strand cDNA (Transcriptor First Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit, Roche) and used as a template in PCR reactions using Q5 high fidelity DNA polymerase (see Supplementary Methods for details of primers).…”

Paradigm shift in the diagnosis of peste des petits ruminants: scoping review

“…PPRV has continued to expand its Kinimi et al Acta Vet Scand (2020) 62:7 geographic boundaries, reaching regions previously not infected and putting hundreds of millions of both domestic small ruminants and wildlife at risk of infection. However, the occurrence of PPRV in previously uninfected regions, together with the mixing of lineages in endemically infected countries, highlights the dynamic and transboundary nature of this disease [10][11][12]. The expansion of PPR range has been known for many decades but it has taken a considerable time to raise international interest and to bring PPR to the status of a priority disease for livelihood and food security.…”