title: Peste des petits ruminants has been widely present in southern India since, if not before, the late 1980s.
abstract: Because previous authorities had suggested that small ruminants were playing a part in the dissemination of rinderpest, and a rinderpest-eradication campaign was about to begin, it was necessary to make precise virus identifications from a number of small-ruminant "rinderpest" outbreaks. When this was done using a database created from passive disease reports, we found that epidemics-reportedly due to rinderpest-were in fact due to peste des petits ruminants (PPRs). Although such cases had been common in India for a number of years, earlier clinical and laboratory reports no longer should be regarded as definitive. PPR outbreaks have been frequent in recent years. Further, we suggest that PPR is not a recent invader of India.
authors.affiliation: 14 Beach Crescent, BN17 5NT, Littlehampton, UK. bill_taylor@tring40.freeserve.co.uk
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diallo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gopalakrishna
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sreeramalu
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Wilsmore
authors.forename: Y P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Nanda
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Libeau
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rajasekhar
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000662:veterinary*; D006041:Goats; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D029021:Peste-des-Petits-Ruminants / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018107:Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012621:Seasons; D012756:Sheep