Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Archives of Virology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-019-04269-y ORIGINAL ARTICLE Pathological and molecular characterisation of peste des petits ruminants in Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) in Israel Asaf Berkowitz 1  · Nili Avni‑Magen 3  · Arieli Bouznach 1  · Trevor Waner 4  · Arie Litvak 3  · Orly Friedgut 2  · Velizar Bombarov 2  · Marisol Guini‑Rubinstein 2  · Yehuda Stram 2  · Avi Eldar 2  · Oran Erster 2 Received: 3 December 2018 / Accepted: 30 March 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a devastating disease that generally afects sheep and goats, mostly in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The disease has been declared a target for global eradication. Despite its high prevalence in domestic focks and its high seroprevalence among wildlife, it is rarely reported as a fulminant disease in wild ruminant species (with the exception of Central Asia). In this report, we describe a severe PPR outbreak in a zoo herd of Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), causing the deaths of 2/3 of the herd. The clinical onset was acute with morbid animals exhibiting lethargy and watery-to- bloody diarrhea and death usually within 48 h. The most consistent gross pathologic fndings were hemorrhagic abomasitis and enteritis. Oral lesions and pulmonary lesions were rare. Histology revealed necrohemorrhagic enteritis and abomasitis with myriad nuclear and cytoplasmic viral inclusion bodies. Molecular examinations confrmed the diagnosis of PPR and determined that the causative agent belongs to lineage IV. Further molecular examination showed that the virus belongs to the Asian clade of lineage IV and is closely related to a virus described in Turkey. Introduction Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious and economically important transboundary disease of sheep and goats [1]. It is present in sub-Saharan Africa, the Mid- dle East, and Central and East Asia, with recent incursions into Morocco [2, 3], and it is a notifable disease, according to the OIE requirements [4]. Small ruminant morbillivirus (SRMV, formerly referred to as peste des petits ruminants virus, family Paramyxoviridae, genus Morbillivirus) is a non-segmented negative-strand RNA virus and is the causa- tive agent of PPR [1], which is mainly reported in domestic sheep and goats. Goats are considered more vulnerable than sheep [5, 6]. However, the epidemiology of the disease is complicated by the presence of sylvatic and domestic trans- mission cycles in which SRMV circulates predominantly in domestic ruminants and randomly infects wildlife through pasture exchanges [7, 8]. PPR has been reported to be a severe disease with high mortality in captive wild ruminant species from three ungulate subfamilies: Antilopinae (saiga, dorcas gazelle), Caprinae (Nubian ibex and Laristan sheep) and Hippotraginae (gemsbok). However, there is only one report of highly fatal, peracute, naturally occurring PPR in gazelles kept under semi-free range conditions [9]. SRMV strains are divided into four lineages (I–IV) according to Handling Editor: Sheela Ramamoorthy. Asaf Berkowitz and Oran Erster contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-019-04269-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Oran Erster oran.erster@sheba.health.gov.il Avi Eldar eldar@moag.gov.il 1 Division of Pathology, Kimron Veterinary Institute, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel 2 Division of virology, Kimron Veterinary Institute, 50250 Bet Dagan, Israel 3 Biblical zoo of Jerusalem, Derech Aharon Shulov 3, Jerusalem, Israel 4 Veterinary Clinic, 9 Meginay Hagalil Street, Rehovot, Israel 5 Present Address: Central Virology Laboratory, Israeli Ministry of Health, Sheba Medical Center, 5266202 Ramat Gan, Israel