Fatima Zohra Fakri, Tarik Embarki, Warda Baha, Khalid Omari Tadlaoui, Ouafaa Fassi Fihri and Mehdi El Harrak

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and Sheeppox (SP) are highly contagious diseases of small ruminants causing huge economic losses. Vaccination is themost efficient tool to control both diseases. Morocco conducted in 2015 a large vaccination program with a combined vaccine against PPR and SP, recently developed. The study was carried out on 1079 randomly selected sera, sampled 6 and 9 months after vaccination, tested by competitive ELISA (c-ELISA) for PPR and Virus Neutralization Test (VNT) for SP. Significant level of antibodies among sheep population was detected on 84% for PPR and 77.5% for SP. No statistically significant difference found regarding antibody response of young animals (≤12 months) and adult (> 12 months), breeding system (extensive vs intensive) and post-vaccination sampling time (P>0.05). However, response to vaccination was different between breed (P<0.01). The high seroconversion rate reflected a strong immunity status against both diseases, which indicates that the combined vaccine can be used for economic vaccination strategy.

Disease: SPV+ PPR
Published: 24 September 2020