Enhanced control of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in sub Saharan Africa through development of better diagnostics and vaccines

Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a highly contagious disease that affects cattle throughout most of sub Saharan Africa.  It is consistently ranked amongst the most serious livestock diseases by regional and national authorities and cattle keepers alike, both FAO and AU-IBAR consider improved diagnostic tests and vaccines for CBPP to be a research priority.

The disease affects both pastoralist and mixed crop-livestock systems but its impacts are greatest in pastoralist areas.  CBPP causes direct impact through mortality and morbidity: up to 15% of infected animals die: lactation yields of infected cows are reduced by up to 90%: meat production is affected through reduced growth rates of infected animals: and infected draught oxen have a much reduced capacity for work.

Indirect losses at the household level are incurred through treatment costs (Euro10 - 14 per animal) and movement restrictions: local quarantine and movement control measures imposed in the face of an outbreak can limit access to markets, grazing and water sources, although these are hard to enforce in remote areas.   Vaccination campaigns and other control measures stretch under-resourced national veterinary authorities.  The total annual economic cost of CBPP has been estimated to total over Euro 44 million for the 12 countries in western, central and eastern Africa that report the vast majority of outbreaks. 

The persistence of the disease in Africa represents a constant threat to other parts of the world, especially southern Europe where recurrences of CBPP have been recorded during the 1990s.  Although CBPP has been successfully eliminated from Europe, North America and Australia using a combination of strictly enforced movement control and culling, these approaches are considered to be inappropriate in Africa due to the very different socio-economic conditions on the continent.