Peste des petits ruminants has been widely present in southern India since, if not before, the late 1980s.
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.
Taylor
W P
WP
14 Beach Crescent, BN17 5NT, Littlehampton, UK. bill_taylor@tring40.freeserve.co.uk
Diallo
A
A
Gopalakrishna
S
S
Sreeramalu
P
P
Wilsmore
A J
AJ
Nanda
Y P
YP
Libeau
G
G
Rajasekhar
M
M
Mukhopadhyay
A K
AK
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