exotic Morbillivirus INFECTIONS

KAI FROLICH

Tierpark Arche Warder e.V., Warder, Germany

RINDERPEST

Rinderpest, also named la peste bovine, and steppe murrain, is the most devastating plague of cattle known in history.

Rinderpest caused massive losses in cattle and wildlife principally in sub- Saharan Africa during the end of the 19th century. Rinderpest also affected parts of East Africa, southern and central Asia and parts of the Middle East. Devastating epidemics of rinderpest occurred across Europe during the 18 th and 19th centuries.

Outside Africa and Asia, Cervidae might be expected to be the main group of susceptible wild species; deer were reported to have been severely affected during the last British epidemic in 1865. Rinderpest may have caused high mortality in European bison (Bison bosanus) in 1890 and deer in 1865 in Europe(¹⁰⁵). In Western Europe, the last confirmed outbreak of rinderpest was in a zoo in Italy, and resulted from the importation of infected wildlife from Somalia(¹⁰⁶).

The maintenance hosts of RPV are domestic cattle and African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). It is considered that wild animals do not act as reservoirs, and rinderpest was eradicated from areas with high populations of wildlife(¹⁰⁷).

Transmission of RPV requires close contact between infected and susceptible animals. Animals that recover are immune for the rest of their life and do not excrete the virus.

The typical clinical signs in cattle are: depression, fever, ocular and nasal discharges, necrosis of the oral mucosa, diarrhoea, dehydration and death. Case-mortality rates with virulent strains of virus in highly susceptible cattle populations may exceed 90%.

Global efforts to eradicate rinderpest from livestock were successful. In 2010 the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation announced the end of field operations and the successful conclusion of the Global Rinderpest Eradi­cation Programme⁽¹⁰⁸⁾.

PESTE DES PETITS RUMINANTS

Peste-de-petits-ruminants (PPR), or goat plague, is a highly contagious, systemic disease of sheep and goats caused by a morbillivirus. The virus is distinct but similar to the rinderpest virus. There are four lineages of the PPR virus, which show some differences in virulence. PPR occurs endemically in sub -Saharan Africa, West Africa, the Middle East and Southern Asia, causing important economic losses. PPR occurred in Turkey, and serological evidence of PPR in small ruminants has been reported in Tunisia. Wild ungulates are also susceptible to PPR.

PPR was found in the United Arabian Emirates (UAE) in several wild ruminant species kept under semi-free- ranging conditions (bushbucks (Tragelaphus scriptus), impala (Aepyceros melampus), rheem gazelles ( Gazella sub- gutturosa marica), Arabian mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella cord), springbuck (Antidorcas marsupialis), Arabian gazelles (Gazella gazella), Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), barbary sheep (A mmotragus lervia) and Afghan markhor goat ( Capra falconeri)). Diagnosis was confirmed by mor­phological, immunohistochemical, serological and molec­ular findings. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the virus strain belongs to the lineage IV, which is different to some previously isolated PPR strains from the Arabian Peninsula⁽¹⁰⁹⁾.

In Cervidae, fatal and subclinical disease was reported in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)⁽¹¹⁰⁾. PPRV specific antibodies were detected in free-roaming goitred gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa subgutturosa) on a farm in Anatolia (Turkey)(¹¹¹). To date, clinical PPR has not been reported in free- living European wildlife, but it has the potential to cause severe disease in some European wild species, in particular in wild caprines and ovines.

PPR is characterized by extensive necrosis of the mucosae of the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract as well as pneu­monitis. Clinical signs include serous or mucopurulent ocular and nasal discharges, with plaques of necrosis in the nasal and oral mucosae and diarrhoea.

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