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Establishment of a PPR Global Research and Expertise Network (PPR-GREN)

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Sender: "Establishment of a PPR Global Research and Expertise Network (PPR-GREN)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2014 09:06:13 +0000
Reply-To: Paul Rossiter <[log in to unmask]>
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Dear Colleagues

Let me try to put the finger on some weaknesses.


I) Our understanding of PPR epidemiology other than in sheep & goats still
has dangerous gaps:

  - We know from Sudan that a PPR lineage 4 strain is adapted to camels
  and can even kill them
  - We also know from Tanzania that PPR virus can circulate in cattle
  - What we don't know is whether this has any consequences for PPR
  transmission to sheep & goats, but there are indications that camels may be
  playing a role in spreading lineage IV in Africa
 
Moderator: Thanks for this important comment.  My own impression based on reading what I can on PPR in camels is that this issue is unlikely to prevent eradication of PPR from the main hosts sheep and goats. (I hope this view will not come back to haunt me in years to come). Nevertheless, PPR can be a serious problem for camels and for their owners and one that we must definitely resolve, along with the role of other species.  Further contributions on this subject from other conference participants are welcome.
 
II) The vaccines currently available, even if manufactured to the required
standards are very sensitive to heat and difficult to use in a tropical
climate. Maintaining a cold chain in the field is also very expensive.
Despite huge costs, some of the past PPR vaccination campaigns achieved
sero-conversion rates that were too low to have any significant impact,
insufficient cold chain being part of the problem. Expensive failures
seriously discredit the PPR eradication effort and our whole profession in
the eyes of governments and donors. In the long-term, PPR vaccination is
not about stopping or reducing outbreaks, it's about eradicating PPR.
Cost-efficient vaccine delivery will be crucial to sustaining the PPR
eradication effort until that goal is achieved. For the PPR eradication we
should be using thermo-stable vaccines right from the start. - At the end
of the Rinderpest eradication campaign cost efficient delivery (on foot!)
of a thermo-stable RP vaccine eliminated the last RP pockets in Afar.

Moderator: This critical issue was raised by Dr Afzal from Pakistan in one of our first contributions and replied to by Dr Peter Roeder. A thermostable PPR vaccine using the Nig75/1 strain on virus has been developed and was described by Dr Jeff Mariner and colleagues in the proceedings of the second meeting of the Global PPR Research Alliance held in 2013. I anticipate that Dr Mariner will be able to update us on progress with this vaccine. 
 
 
Kind Regards

Mario Younan, DVM, PhD.

Independent Animal Health & Livestock consultant

Working in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia & Sudan

Technical advisor to Vétérinaires sans Frontières (working on PPR control
in Greater Horn of Africa) http://www.vsfg.org/

Founding member of ISOCARD http://www.isocard.org/

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