Pathogenicity study of field isolate of peste de petits (PPR) ruminants virus in goats

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an acute and highly contagious viral disease of goats and sheep. The pathogenicity study conducted in local non-descript goats revealed the appearance of clinical disease in all 5 experimentally infected goats. Pyrexia was the first noticeable sign recorded in all the goats. Nasal discharge was also seen in all the 5 infected goats. Further, only one of the infected goats demonstrated occular discharge while oral lesions were visible in 2 of infected goats. Postmortem examination conducted in one goat, which succumbed to infection showed distribution of lesion in lungs typical of PPR. Screening of clinical sample collected from experimentally infected goat by employing Sandwich-ELISA (S-ELISA) demonstrated the presence of virus antigen. On the other hand, the control goats did not demonstrate any clinical sign and also there was no detection of antigen from such samples when subjected to S-ELISA. The finding suggested the ability of field virus reproduce the disease in susceptible goats.