viruses Review Progress towards Eradication of Peste des Petits Ruminants through Vaccination Hang Zhao 1 , Felix Njeumi 2 , Satya Parida 3, * and Camilla T. O. Benfield 2,4, *   Citation: Zhao, H.; Njeumi, F.; Parida, S.; Benfield, C.T.O. Progress towards Eradication of Peste des Petits Ruminants through Vaccination. Viruses 2021, 13, 59. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/v13010059 Academic Editor: Helle Bielefeldt-Ohmann Received: 30 November 2020 Accepted: 31 December 2020 Published: 5 January 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional clai- ms in published maps and institutio- nal affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Li- censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons At- tribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety–State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Ministry of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China; dongyizhaohang@163.com 2 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy; felix.njeumi@fao.org 3 The Pirbright Institute, Woking GU24 0NF, UK 4 Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London NW1 0TU, UK * Correspondence: satya.parida@pirbright.ac.uk (S.P.); Camilla.Benfield@fao.org (C.T.O.B.) Abstract: Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a transboundary viral disease that threatens more than 1.74 billion goats and sheep in approximately 70 countries globally. In 2015, the international community set the goal of eradicating PPR by 2030, and, since then, Food and Agriculture Organi- zation of the United Nations (FAO) and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) have jointly developed and implemented the Global Control and Eradication Strategy for PPR. Here, data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Statistical Database (FAOSTAT), the OIE World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS), Regional Roadmap Meetings, and countries’ responses to PPR Monitoring and Assessment Tool (PMAT) questionnaires were analyzed to inform on current progress towards PPR eradication. OIE recorded the use of over 333 million doses of vaccine in 12 countries from 2015 to 2018, 41.8% of which were used in Asia and 58.2% in Africa. Between 2015 and 2019, a total of 12,757 PPR outbreaks were reported to OIE: 75.1% in Asia, 24.8% in Africa, and 0.1% in Europe. The number of global outbreaks in 2019 fell to 1218, compared with 3688 in 2015. Analysis of vaccine use and PPR outbreaks in countries indicates that disease control strategies, particularly vaccination campaigns and vaccine distribution strategies, still require scientific evaluation. It is imperative that vaccination is undertaken based on the epidemiology of the disease in a region and is coordinated between neighboring countries to restrict transboundary movements. Strengthening surveillance and post-vaccination sero-monitoring at the national level is also essential. The PPR vaccine stock/bank established by FAO, OIE, and other partners have improved the quality assurance and supply of vaccines. However, to achieve PPR eradication, filling the funding gap for vaccination campaigns and other program activities will be critical. Keywords: peste des petits ruminants; eradication; vaccination campaign; vaccine; surveillance; global eradication program (GEP) 1. Introduction Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious transboundary disease caused by the Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) [1–3]. PPRV belongs to the morbillivirus genus, Paramyxoviridae family [4] and has been renamed as small ruminant morbillivirus (SRMV) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses in 2016 [5]. There is only one serotype of PPRV, but phylogenetic analysis based on partial N or F gene sequences groups PPRV strains into lineages I, II, III, and IV [6]. Historically, PPRV strains found in Africa belonged to lineage I and lineage II and were mainly prevalent in West Africa. Lineage III is mostly found in Arabia and recently circulating in East Africa [7,8], but has also been isolated in southern India on one occasion. Lineage IV is usually found in Asia, and hence, has been termed the Asian lineage [9]. A recent review Viruses 2021, 13, 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13010059 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses