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

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"Kivaria, Fredrick (FAOTZ)" <[log in to unmask]>
Mon, 3 Feb 2014 09:36:50 +0300
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Dear colleagues,

My congratulations to whoever that came up with this brilliant idea. I am looking forward to learn from colleagues around the global on various aspects of PPR epidemiology and practical control strategies that could see the end of PPR in the world.



PPRV lineage III was confirmed for the first time in December 2008. In the northern parts of Tanzania, across the Tanzania-Kenya border. In 2009 the Department of Veterinary Services in collaboration with FAO launched a vaccination campaign targeted at 3,000,000 small ruminants. However, since the campaign was a standalone operation (it was logistically very difficult to enforce zoo sanitary measures), by April 2010 the disease had spread into at least 50% of the country.



The national animal health reporting system largely depends on the passive reporting of outbreaks by the stock owners and livestock field officers. The passive reporting system is characterized by delayed reporting, and retrospective response. Following the confirmation, a risk based surveillance focusing on the distribution of livestock markets, grazing and watering points as well as slaughter points was designed. Livestock population with a 5 Km (rain season) and/or 10-15Km (Dry spell) radius around the critical surveillance points was considered at risk. However, since the reporting was in most cases not associated with rapid response, the value of risk surveillance was limited to the identification of new infected foci. But, this approached proved to be very useful in tracing the movement of the disease.



Risk based vaccination was employed, whereby 80% of the population in a radius of about 5 Km (the radius could be expanded to 10-15 Km during the spell) around stoke routes, livestock markets, grazing and watering points, and across the borders was targeted. It was aimed to provide three rounds of vaccination at an interval of 4 - 6months (the initial planning was to contain the disease at the source-North-Eastern regions), although we had enough vaccines, this was not achieved due to logistical reasons (long travel distances, cold chain, shifting of livestock). However, one of the key lessons learnt were the need for multiple vaccination in a given area. The reintroduction of PPR in populations where at last two rounds of vaccination were done, was delayed for at least a year or so as compared to populations that had received only one round of vaccination. Two factors were responsible for this observation – the kidding rate is estimated at about 30-33% of the pastoral sheep and goat population. The practical implication is that in less than a year the population of unvaccinated animals doubles and in some places tripled, therefore diluting the flock immunity. The flock immunity was also thought to be influenced by the migrating animals, especially during the dry spell.

Our field data also gave us very useful information that one primary infectious index gave at least 4 new secondary cases. This fact coupled with poor/delayed reporting and retrospective response resulted into fast and wide spread, and persistence of infections in new areas and old ones, respectively.



Another important lesson learn was the fact that the pastoralists’ cooperation and enthusiasm to provide necessary information on the occurrence of outbreaks was in most cases associated with delayed action from the authorities, this greatly reduced the role/motivation of the flock owners in diseases control; consequently increased the possibility for delayed detection and recognition.



The private sector was involved in the delivery of vaccination services to the pastoralists. This however, proved to be logistically effective only in the urban areas. The private sector heavily relied on the government to provide field staff, cold chain, and fuel and in some cases transport.



Increased livestock movements especially during festivities (e.g. end of the year), played a crucial role in the spread of PPR into new areas.  This is how the disease speeded into the southern parts of the country. Tethered or sheep and goats that are raised in the highlands, they were little affected. The main source of infection was either newly purchased and/or the returned/unsold animals.  It was of epidemiological interest to find PPRV sero-positive trade cattle in one of the infected districts.



The overall conclusion from our field work was that to elimination of PPRV from pastoral flocks will require significant effort and development of effective intervention tools, among which is the development of a thermo-stable vaccine, and innovative zoo-sanitary measures.



With my best regards to all,



Fredrick









From: Establishment of a PPR Global Research and Expertise Network (PPR-GREN) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Rossiter

Sent: 30 January 2014 16:42

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: PPR-GREN e-conference: Introduction to session one.





Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the opening session of this e-conference.  Following the success of rinderpest eradication the international animal health community has identified peste des petits ruminants (PPR) as one of the possible new livestock disease for eradication. It is widely agreed that the basic technical tools and epidemiological understanding, which contributed to the eradication of rinderpest, already exist for PPR control and there is no reason why a progressive programme of global control of PPR cannot begin immediately.  Nevertheless, despite these tools and the lessons learned from rinderpest eradication, PPR continues to expand its global distribution and cause significant economic losses for many of the world’s poorest people.  The Joint OIE-FAO GF-TADs initiative has established a joint working group to promote progressive control of PPR. The working group recognizes the need for the global control strategy to be based upon a solid foundation of research and field experience and to share this innovative knowledge as widely and freely as possible. An internet –based forum to communicate with as many as possible of the people and organizations working on PPR is seen to be a potentially effective way to do this, and OIE and FAO will launch “The PPR Global Research and Experience Network” (PPR-GREN).

As stated in the invitation note, the overall purpose of this e- conference is to invite you to share your opinion and understanding gained from working with PPR to guide the formulation of PPR-GREN in a manner that will satisfy the needs of all stakeholders. It is anticipated that the network will prove a sustainable and popular medium for accelerating the uptake of new ideas and methodologies for PPR control.  It is important that the network should involve and appeal to those actors involved in the day to day control of PPR in the field as well as those working in research.

This first session aims to identify the key positive and negative factors influencing global, regional and national PPR control today and how these can either be built upon to advantage or resolved. It will benefit from your reports of success in PPR control and your advice on how this can be replicated elsewhere:  for instance; improved vaccination strategies that have brought about a sustainable reduction in disease incidence, disease surveillance that has facilitated better use of limited resources, imaginative use of the private animal health sector to implement both vaccination and disease reporting, etc. The conference is open to the most seemingly small and perhaps unremarkable operational changes that have improved control through, for example, better management of cold chains in difficult areas, increased participation of livestock owners in disease reporting, or identifying immunized and un-immunized herds and flocks.  These and other practical observations may be especially useful to other colleagues and the network proposes to share and propagate your ideas and innovations with them.

Equally importantly the conference needs to hear of the technical and operational difficulties you may be facing plus how you see these being resolved. Does it require fundamental research or operational change or might another participant to the conference already have the answer?   At the end of the first two weeks we hope to have widespread consensus of where efforts are being met with success and where there are major difficulties facing global progressive control allowing us to start to define the main areas requiring new techniques and new thinking. Needless to say, we do not expect this first PPR e-conference to solve every problem facing PPR control but it should allow us the opportunity to assess how effective internet interaction can be and how a PPR network might build on this.

After identifying these major areas of achievement and constraint the second and third sessions of the conference will attempt to prioritize specific technical and field implementation aspects of improved PPR control as themes and sub-themes for discussion and research within PPR-GREN; the fourth session will discuss what other preventable diseases of sheep and goats could be included for progressive control with PPR.     How the proposed PPR-GREN will actually operate and interact with all individual and group stakeholders in research, field and policy making roles will be discussed in the final week of the conference which will close on Friday March 7th. A summary report of the e-conference should be available in early April.

Please try to keep your contributions to the recommended maximum of 500-600 words (approximately 1 page), preferably less. If your contributions cover topics scheduled for a different session they will be held back until that session.   Contributions covering more than one session may be edited so that they can be read and discussed at the appropriate times. We have nearly 200 participants and at this early stage we do not all know each other. Therefore, please add your full name, title, address and affiliation (if any) to each correspondence, at least to begin  with, and if possible one or two lines stating your main interest and involvement in PPR control. (This will not be part of the 500 words).

We look forward to your contributions and to a thoughtful and productive conference.

Paul Rossiter - moderator.







St Michael's House,

EX17 4LA UK

Tel +44 (0)1363 866817



P.O.Box 30087 ,

GPO 00100 Nairobi.

Tel: +254 (0) 733 994456



Skype: paul,rossiter01



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