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The Early and Sensitive Diagnosis and Control of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR)
Closed for proposals
Project Type
Project Code
D32026CRP
1437Approved Date
Status
Start Date
Expected End Date
Completed Date
11 July 2013Description
Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious trans-boundary animal disease of wild and domestic small ruminants causing high morbidity and mortality ion affected herds. It is endemic in parts of Africa, the Near and Middle East and South Asia and the incidence is expanding. Traditional diagnostic techniques are time consuming, expensive and do not differentiate infected and vaccinated animals and cross react with the Rinderpest virus. This CRP will evaluate techniques for early and rapid detection of PPR by molecular methods to improve disease management and control in combination with DIVA (differentiation between infected and vaccinated) vaccines.
Objectives
The overall objective is to develop, validate and transfer to Member States sensitive, specific and rapid tests for the diagnosis of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) to help them better manage and control this transboundary animal disease (TAD)
Specific objectives
a) Evaluate and validate current Reverse Transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) methods in use for the diagnosis of PPR. There are different methodologies for RNA extraction and different sets of primers, target different regions of the genome, etc. These methodologies will be standardised, compared and validated.
b) Evaluate and validate real-time PCR. This quantitative method does not require several procedures but can be run as a single set up in one machine. In comparison to conventional PCR the RT-PCR offers increased sensitivity and specificity in a rapid format but requires a relatively expensive machine and expensive reagents.
c) Design and evaluation of the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay. It is a novel approach performed at one temperature, which allow obtaining extremely high amplification efficiency. It is a highly specific test based on six primers recognizing the target sequences. Compared to classical PCR, LAMP is much faster, quantitative and the amplification products can be detected by visual inspection or in real-time by the addition of a DNA intercalating fluorescent dye. Therefore, LAMP technology seems to be cost-effective in comparison to other current amplification technologies and has therefore a great potential use in developing countries for pathogen transboundary animal disease surveillance such as PPR.
d) Evaluate and validate a penside test currently under development for rapid and cheap identification of PPR virus in the field. It will be based on the use of a PPRV specific monoclonal antibody produced by the APU at Seibersdorf
Impact
As indicated above, the capacity of the different laboratories that were part of the CRP were improved for PPR diagnosis. The epidemiological data that were obtained from Burkina Faso and Ghana were considered in the planning of the control programme that is currently on-going in those two countries with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Five fellows, coming from countries involved in this CRP, were trained in APHL for PPR diagnosis. Fellows from two other countries, not included in the CRP, were also trained in APHL on the use of techniques developed during this for PPR diagnosis.
Relevance
This aim assigned to this CRP was to develop, validate and transfer to Member States sensitive, specific and rapid tests for the diagnosis of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) to help them better manage and control this transboundary animal disease (TAD) which is drawing back small ruminant productions in many developing countries. Indeed, in Asia and Africa, PPR is the main killer of sheep and goat, thus the main threat to the livelihood of the poor farmers because those animals are among the major livestock species they rely on. It is why an animal disease consultancy which was carried out in early 2000’s singled out PPR as one of the important animal diseases to be taken into consideration in poverty alleviation policies. Because of the high negative economic impact in countries affected by PPR, this disease is one of the priorities of the FAO Emergency Preventive System (EMPRES) programme. At the recent Global Rinderpest Eradication (GREP) which was held in Rome on October 13-14, 2010, and taking into consideration the risk that PPR may pose in a “rinderpest-free world”, experts requested FAO to develop strategy (ies) in link with other partner institutions for the progressive control of PPR even its eradication as what has been achieved now for rinderpest. This strategy should be based on knowledge on the epidemiology of the disease, in particular the different animal species that could be infected by PPR virus (PPRV). All the tools that were developed and the information that were acquired will help in designing PPR control programmes as it is the case of the current PPR control programme in Burkina Faso and Ghana. The two laboratories from these countries are analysing perfectly all samples collected during this programme (not sent anymore abroad for analysis as it was the case before). FAO and OIE are developing a strategy for PPR global control programme. The laboratories in this CRP are prepared to contribute in the implementation of this future control programme and tools that were developed will be used for the analysed of collected samples.