The Evolution of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in Romania and Neighbouring Countries
Keywords:
outbreaks, peste des petits ruminants, sheep plagueAbstract
Peste des petits ruminants is a very serious viral disease that affects several species of small ruminants, both domestic and wild, highly contagious and with a very severe course, ending in death in 70-80%. The disease also causes significant economic losses in the livestock sector. On 19.07.2024, the first outbreak of peste des petits ruminants in Romania was confirmed. In August 2024, 56 outbreaks of peste des petits ruminants were confirmed in Romania in Tulcea, Constanța and Timiș counties. A total of 236,082 sheep and goats were killed, as a result of the measures instituted by the authorities. The first cases of the disease appeared on 11.07.2024, followed by deaths in the following days. Peste des petits ruminants also appeared in Greece, in goats and sheep kept in the municipal unit of Kalambaka, municipality of Meteora, in the regional unit of Trikala, region of Thessaly, which was confirmed on 11 July 2024. In 2018, among the countries closer to Romania, the disease was reported in Turkey, Georgia and, more recently, in Bulgaria. PPR is a highly contagious, transboundary disease associated with significant economic losses. Because they did not think about peste des petits ruminants, given that this virus had nowhere to appear, veterinarians suspected the development of some bacterial lung diseases exacerbated by the extremely high temperatures of this period. Only after 8 days, the virus was confirmed at the farm in Tulcea and, subsequently, at several farms in the county, after which it appeared, a few days later, absolutely mysteriously, in the farms in Constanța. Tens of thousands of animals were killed, and extensive areas were quarantined. In January 2025, the first outbreak of peste des petits ruminants was confirmed in Hungary, in the Laboratory of the National Office for Food Chain Safety (Nébih) in Zal County, being the first cases of sheep plague in this country, and the sanitary-veterinary authorities went on alert. Measures were also taken in Slovenia.
References
Parida S., Muniraju M., Mahapatra M., Muthuchelvn D., Buczkowski H., Banyard A., Peste des petits ruminants, Vet Microbiol., 2015, volume 181, issue1-2, pp. 90–106.
Parida S, Selvaraj M, Gubbins S, Pope R, Banyard A, Mahapatra M., Quantifying levels of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) Virus in excretions from experimentally infected goats and its importance for nascent PPR eradication programme. Viruses, 2019, pp. 11-249.
Răpuntean Ghe., Peste des petits ruminants: a review, Romanian Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Farmacology, 2018; Vol. III 12(4), pp.243-251.
Baron M., Diallo A., Lancelot R., Libeau G., Chapter one – Peste des petits ruminants, Advances in virus research, 2016, vol. 95, pp. 1-42.
NDCC (National Disease Control Centre), Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) Update No 2 of 2024.
Clarke B.D., MR Islam, Yusuf M.A., Mahapatra M., Parida S., Molecular detection, isolation and characterization of Peste‐des‐petits ruminants virus from goat milk from outbreaks in Bangladesh and its implication for eradication …Transboundary and emerging diseases, 2018•Wiley Online Library.
Halecker S., Joseph S, Mohammed R., Wernery U., Mettenleiter T.C., Beer M, Hoffmann B., Comparative evaluation of different antigen detection methods for the detection of peste des petits ruminants virus. Transbound Emerg Dis 67, 2020, pp. 2881–2891.
Roger-Junior Eloiflin, Llorenç Grau-Roma, Sylvie Python, Kemal Mehinagic, Aurélie Godel,
Geneviève Libeau, Artur Summerfield, Arnaud Bataille & Obdulio García-Nicolás, Comparative pathogenesis of peste des petits ruminats virus strains of difference virulence, Veterinary research 53(57), 2020, pp. 53-57.
EFSA (2015) Scientific Opinion on peste des petits ruminants (wiley.com).
Greece - Peste des petits ruminants virus (Inf. with) - Follow-up report 18. accessed 13 August 2024. https://wahis.woah.org/#/in-review/5759?repor tId=168657&fromPage=event-dashboard-url.
Romania - Peste des petits ruminants virus (Inf. with) - Follow-up report 7. accessed 13 August 2024. https://wahis.woah.org/#/in-review/5776?reportI d=168641&fromPage=event-dashboard-url.
https://www.woah.org/en/first-detection-of-peste-des-petits-ruminants-ppr-in-greece-and-romania/.
Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations: FAO alerts of the European countries to enhance preparedness for combating peste des petits ruminants, 24 December 2024.
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-sheep-goat-plague-outbreak-ppr-romania-bulgaria-greece-feta/
EFSA (2022) Assessment of the control measures of the Category A diseases of the Animal Health Law: prohibitions in restricted zones and risk‐mitigating treatments for products of animal origin and other materials - 2022 - EFSA Journal - Wiley Online Library.
EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Journal 2015;13(1):3985, Scientific Opinion on peste des petits ruminants1 EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW)2,3 European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy.
PAFF (2024a) Ministry of Rural Development and Food Directorate General of Veterinary Services Animal Health Directorate Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (europa.eu).
PAFF (2024b) PPR Epidemiological situation - update a757db71-492d-485c-94a7 d26673dbc909_en (europa.eu).
ADIS (2024) Animal Disease Information System (ADIS) - European Commission (europa.eu).
Parida, S., Muniraju, M., Altan, E., Baazizi, R., Raj, G. D., & Mahapatra, M. , Emergence of PPR and its threat to Europe. Small Ruminant Research, 2016, 142, pp. 16–21.
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/2203 of 29 August 2024 amending Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/2119 concerning certain emergency measures relating to infection with peste des petits ruminants virus in Romania (notified under document C(2024) 6220) ) (Official Journal of the European Union, 30 August 2024).
Peste des Petits Ruminants Global Eradication Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August 2024. https://www.woah.org/app/uploads/2021/03/ en-gep-ppr-finalweb.pdf.
WOAH (2024): https://www.woah.org/en/disease/peste-des-petits-ruminants/.
Arede, Margarida and Beltrán-Alcrudo, Daniel and Benfield, Camilla and Casal, Jordi and Njeumi, Felix and Ciaravino, Giovanna and Allepuz, Alberto, Risk Mapping the Peste Des Petits Ruminants Spread in the Black Sea Basin: A Spatial Multicriteria Decision Analysis Approach, 2024. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4723954 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4723954.
Enchery F., Hamers C., Kwiatek O., Gaillardet D., Montange C., Brunel H., Goutebroze S., Philippe-Reversat C., Libeau G., Hudelet P., Bataille A., Development of a PPRV challenge model in goats and its use to assess the efficacy of a PPR vaccine, 2019, Vaccine 37, pp.1667–1673.
Dou Y., Liang Z., Prajapati M., Zhang R., Li Y., Zhang Z., Expanding diversity of susceptible hosts in peste des petits ruminants virus infection and its potential mechanism beyond. Front Vet Sci., 2020, pp. 7-66.
https://acebop.ro/2024/08/22/vaccinare- pentru-protejarea-ovinelor-si-caprinelor-de-pesta-micilor-rumegatoare/.
Francois, Louis Roger, Fournié et al., Editorial article: Peste des petits ruminants (PPR): Generating evidence to support eradication efforts, Front. Vet. Sci., 27 January 2021, Sec. Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, Volume 7 – 2020.
Enchery F., Hamers C., Kwiatek O., Gaillardet D., Montange C., Brunel H., Goutebroze S., Philippe-Reversat C., Libeau G., Hudelet P., Bataille A., Development of a PPRV challenge model in goats and its use to assess the efficacy of a PPR vaccine. Vaccine 37, 2019, pp.1667–1673.
Truong T, Boshra H, Embury-Hyatt C, Nfon C, Gerdts V, Tikoo S, Babiuk L, Kara P, Chetty T, Mather A, Wallace D, Babiuk S (2014) Peste des petits ruminants virus tissue tropism and pathogenesis in sheep and goats following experimental infection. PLoS One 9, pp. 87-145.
