Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 2011, 30 (3), 889-896 Sero-epidemiological study of peste des petits ruminants in sheep and goats in India between 2003 and 2009 V. Balamurugan (1)# , P. Saravanan (2)# , A. Sen (3)# , K.K. Rajak (3) , V. Bhanuprakash (3) , P. Krishnamoorthy (1) & R.K. Singh (4)* (1) Project Directorate on Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance, Hebbal, Bangalore-560 024, Karnataka, India (2) Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bangalore Campus-560 024, Karnataka, India (3) Division of Virology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Campus Mukteswar-263138, Nainital District, Uttarakhand, India (4) National Research Centre on Equines, Sirsa Road, Hisar-125 001, Haryana, India # These authors contributed equally * Corresponding author: rks_virology@rediffmail.com Submitted for publication: 27 March 2010 Accepted for publication: 7 July 2011 Summary This study describes the serosurveillance of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in sheep and goats that was carried out between 2003 and 2009 using serum samples from animals suspected of PPR that were submitted to the Rinderpest and Allied Disease Laboratory (Division of Virology of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute [IVRI]). A total of 2,197 serum samples from sheep and 2,687 from goats were screened for PPR virus (PPRV) antibody using a monoclonal antibody-based competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay developed at IVRI. Screening of the 4,884 serum samples showed that the prevalence of PPRV antibody in sheep and goats was 41.01% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 31.86 to 50.16) and 46.11% (95% CI: 37.18 to 55.04), respectively, with an overall prevalence of 43.56% (95% CI: 36.78 to 50.34) during the period. This indicates increased and widespread infection with the virus in India compared with earlier reports, which is attributed to the variations in sheep and goat husbandry practices in different regions, the agro-climatic conditions, the topography of different states, the socio-economic status of individual farmers and the migration of livestock in India. Keywords Goat – India – Peste des petits ruminants – Serosurveillance – Sheep. Introduction Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an acute, highly contagious, notifiable and economically important transboundary viral disease of goats and sheep, which is listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The mortality usually ranges from 50% to 90%, although it sometimes can be zero, and morbidity varies from 10% to 100%, or sometimes lower than 10%, depending on circumstances (2). The disease is considered to be one of the main constraints to improving the productivity of small ruminants in enzootic countries (14). The causative agent, PPR virus (PPRV), belongs to the Morbillivirus genus of the Paramyxoviridae family. It affects sheep and goats primarily, and occasionally infects wildlife. The disease is characterised clinically by severe pyrexia, oculonasal discharge, necrotising and erosive stomatitis, enteritis and pneumonia (10, 18, 31). Although PPRV has a single serotype, it is grouped genetically into four lineages (I, II, III and IV) on the basis of partial sequence analysis of the