title: Experimental infection of sheep and goats with a recent isolate of peste des petits ruminants virus from Kurdistan.
abstract: Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a contagious viral disease of sheep and goats common in Africa and Asia. Its high morbidity and mortality has a devastating impact on agriculture in developing countries. As an example, an Asian lineage IV strain of PPRV was responsible for mass fatalities among wild goats in Kurdistan in 2010/2011. In separate experiments, three sheep and three goats of German domestic breeds were subcutaneously inoculated with the Kurdish virus isolate; three uninfected sheep and goats were housed together with the inoculated animals. All inoculated animals, all in-contact goats and two in-contact sheep developed high fever (up to 41.7 °C), depression, severe diarrhea, ocular and nasal discharge as well as ulcerative stomatitis and pharyngitis. Infected animals seroconverted within a few days of the first detection of viral genome. Clinical signs were more pronounced in goats; four out of six goats had to be euthanized. Necropsy revealed characteristic lesions in the alimentary tract. Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) RNA was detected in blood as well as nasal, oral and fecal swabs and tissues. The 2011 Kurdish strain of PPRV is highly virulent in European goats and spreads easily to in-contact animals, while disease severity and contagiosity in sheep are slightly lower. PPRV strains like the tested recent isolate can have a high impact on small ruminants in the European Union, and therefore, both early detection methods and intervention strategies have to be improved and updated regularly.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Suedufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wernike
authors.affiliation: Institute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Suedufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany. Electronic address: michael.eschbaumer@ars.usda.gov.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eschbaumer
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Animal Facilities and Biorisk Management, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Suedufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany. Electronic address: angele.breithaupt@fu-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Angele
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Breithaupt
authors.affiliation: Academy for the Protection of Zoo and Wild Animals, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maltzan
authors.affiliation: Academy for the Protection of Zoo and Wild Animals, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wiesner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Suedufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany. Electronic address: martin.beer@fli.bund.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Suedufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D005858:Germany; D015511:Goat Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D006041:Goats; D058507:Host Specificity; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D058865:Introduced Species; D029021:Peste-des-Petits-Ruminants / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D018107:Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D010614:Pharynx / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D012756:Sheep; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D034561:Sheep, Domestic; D014421:Turkey
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral
keywords: Experimental infection; Goat plague; Ovine rinderpest; PPRV; Peste des petits ruminants virus; Transmission