Virological and Molecular Studies on Peste Des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV) in Small Ruminants and Camel in Egypt between 2017 and 2018

Abstract

Peste des petitis ruminant (PPR) is a transboundary viral disease affects mainly goats and sheep with high morbidity and high mortality rates. Thirty-Three samples were collected from small ruminant animals located within three Egyptian governorate, Sharkia, Kafr El-sheikh and Marsa-Matrouh between 2017 and 2018. Likewise, camels were included to investigate the prevalence of PPRV infection in Egypt, 103 samples were collected from three different governorates (Giza, Sharkiya and Red sea). PPRV antigens were examined in small ruminant samples using IC-ELISA. For further confirmation, tissue sample from intestine of small ruminant animals subjected to real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and positive tissue sample were used for isolation of PPRV on Vero cells, which revealed remarkable cytopathic effect that increased obviously after three successive passages. Sera samples were subjected for C-ELISA to determine the presence of antibodies against PPRV which revealed that eight samples (8/10; 80%) were positive. Antibodies were detected in all goat three samples (100%), while in 5 sheep sera samples (5/7; 71.4%) were positive. All camel sera were negative using C-ELISA. Our results revealed that PPRV is still circulating in Egypt which leads to outbreaks in its major host (small ruminants) without spillover to camel. Therefore, effective PPR vaccination program is recommended to be applied regularly in Egypt with strict quarantine measures at the borders to prevent the introduction of new PPRV genotypes to the Egyptian industry.