Seroepidemiology of peste des petits ruminants in sheep and goats of southern peninsular India.

Summary This paper presents the results of a seroepidemiological study carried out between July 2006 and March 2007 to detect the presence of antibodies to peste des petits ruminants (PPR) virus in randomly collected serum samples from sheep and goats in southern peninsular India. The authors used a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with a monoclonal antibody developed against a neutralising epitope of the haemagglutinin (HA) protein of the virus. A total of 1,492 sheep sera and 2,068 goat sera collected from the six southern Indian states were screened. It was determined that 41.35% of the sheep sera and 34.91% of the goat sera were positive for the presence of antibody. The study indicated an extensive endemicity of the disease in these states, which is attributed to the agro-climatic conditions and the migration of livestock.