Serological investigation of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in small ruminants managed under pastoral and agro-pastoral systems in Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study to investigate Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) seroprevalence was conducted between October 2009 and April 2010 in Gambella and Afar regions of Ethiopia. A total of 1163 serum samples were collected from 251 sheep and 912 goats. Competitive Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (c-ELISA) was used to detect the presence of antibodies in the sera of animals as indicator of exposure to the PPR virus. The results showed an overall individual animal seroprevalence of 30.9% (359/1163) with 29.5% in sheep and 31.3% in goats. The disease affected 96.9% (22/23) of the villages in Gambella and all the villages (9/9) in the Afar regions. The intra-village prevalence records range was 8.3–42.9% and 32.6–54.8%, and 0–66.7% and 0–71.4% for sheep and goats in Afar and Gambella regions, respectively. The high village-level seroprevalence of PPR illustrates a remarkable contagious nature of the disease. Multivariable logistic regression analysis of exposure variables revealed a significant association of PPR seroprevalence with districts and sex. Accordingly, seroprevalence was significantly higher in Adaar district of Afar (OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.1, 2.6) when compared to districts of Gambella region. Likewise, females were more likely to be seropositive (OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2, 3.0) than their male counterparts. In conclusion, this study revealed a high seroprevalence and subsequent endemic establishment of PPR in small ruminants in the selected study areas. This disease is detrimental to small ruminant welfare and causes substantial economic losses, thereby affecting the livelihood of poor farmers and pastoralists. The need for implementing feasible control measures is, therefore, eminent to minimize the losses associated with the disease.