Wildlife

“Ruminant Plague” Threatens Populations of Wildlife

A disease already known for causing massive die-offs of wildlife in Asia is spreading.

Publishing their findings in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, a team of scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and more than 20 other organizations say that the spillover of the Peste des Petits Ruminants virus (PPRV) from sheep and goats to wildlife has global implications for biodiversity.

Initially discovered in Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa in 1942, Peste des Petits Ruminants (French for small ruminant plague) is now recognized as a major global burden on the health and production of sheep and goats along with the human communities who depend on them for their livelihoods. This severe disease is typically observed as respiratory and digestive symptoms frequently followed by death. Until recently PPR has been considered a disease of domestic small ruminants, but there have been several recent outbreaks in wildlife, including the 2016-2017 outbreak in the Mongolia saiga antelope, which reduced the population of this critically endangered species by 80 percent.

There is growing evidence that wildlife species from the ‘mountain monarchs’ like the Siberian Ibex and Mountain Sheep to the wild ruminants of the great plains of Asia, like the Saiga antelope and Goitered gazelle, can be infected with PPRV.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2TZ1z4r