Epidemiology and control of peste des petits ruminants in East and West Africa

The global strategy for the control and eradication of peste des petits ruminants has been endorsed by more than 200 countries with the vision of a world free of the disease by 2030. This project supports ongoing global control and eradication efforts led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The project focuses on existing research gaps and aims to provide research support to ongoing peste des petits ruminants control and eradication efforts in East and West Africa. The project will generate evidence to support surveillance and control actions in selected countries with emphasis on high-risk areas that are difficult to reach with vaccination campaigns and may become pockets of infection. The project is implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal

The project has four components:

• Epidemiology and socio-economic impact to fill existing knowledge gaps
• Modelling control of peste des petits ruminants to assess the effectiveness of different control scenarios
• Vaccine delivery and diagnostics to improve access of vaccines to livestock keepers
• Capacity development and surveillance to provide an enabling environment for control efforts

Expected outputs

• Evidence on disease epidemiology, social networks and gendered disease impact
• Frameworks to assess disease risk and feasibility of eradication under different control scenarios in remote high-risk areas
• Validated and tested vaccines and gender-sensitive vaccine delivery models for specific epidemiological and geographical situations
• Improved national and regional disease surveillance capacity and coordination