Sero-prevalence of peste des petits ruminants virus antibodies in sheep and goats from the Sudan, 2016-2017.

Recently, severe outbreaks of PPR among small ruminants were reported regularly in different parts of the country leading to significant economic losses. Between 2016 and 2017, a total of 320 sera were collected from sheep (258) and goats (62) from PPR suspected outbreaks from four different States in the Sudan. Screening of sera for the presence of PPRV antibodies by competitive ELISA revealed an overall antibodies sero-prevalence of 80.9% (259/320, 95% CI 20.5-28) among sheep and goats. On the species basis, sheep sera yielded the higher antibodies sero-prevalence of 84.5% (218/258, 95% CI 16.7-24.1) compared to a lower sero-prevalence of 66.1% (41/62, 95% CI 28.5-51.1) obtained from goats sera. Within Sudanese States where outbreaks occurred, the highest overall sero-prevalence of PPRV antibodies in sheep and goats was demonstrated in River Nile State 90.3% (159/176 sera, 95% CI 12.8-18.2) while the lowest incidence was present in Northern State 00.0% (0/2 sera, 95% CI 69.9-72.2). Of note, higher sero-prevalence values were achieved in this study than previously documented. Results of the present study indicated that PPR is currently circulating widely in the Sudan and still is a leading cause of disease outbreaks and higher fatalities in small ruminants. Therefore, the effective PPR vaccine is recommended to cover all parts of the Sudan to prevent the occurrence of disease outbreaks.