Central Asia:
Afghanistan: PPR are endemic throughout Afghanistan (Azizi and
Farid, 2010). PPR is a transboundary disease of major importance for the
government in a country where 75% of the population are rural and
depend on animals and animal products for their livelihoods. The
majority of the country’s 30 million sheep and goats are owned by Kuchi
nomadic pastoralists, and these livestock are their most important
economic asset. Their migratory routes traverse vast areas of the
countryside, with periodic stops at animal markets, summer pastures, and
in settled villages during the winter. The Kuchi pastoralists were
identified as the primary target group for regional epidemiology of PPRV
because their nomadic way of life and animal movements mean that the
potential for infectious disease spread is high inside countries and to
neighbor countries particularly to Pakistan and Tajikistan. In 2015, the
General Directorate of Animal Health and Production of the Ministry of
Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) initiated Afghanistan’s
formal programme for PPR control and eradication. It did so in
collaboration with FAO, the implementing organization, funded by the
Government of Japan.
The
programme was aligned with the OIE/FAO Global Strategy for the Control
and Eradication of PPR (PPR–GCES), and the objective of the
intervention was to take the country to Stage 2 of the GCES pathway.
In April 2016, at the Regional Roadmap meeting in Nepal, Afghanistan
qualified as being in Stage 1, and was carrying out many Stage 1 and
Stage 2 activities of the GCES progressive pathway. After a successful
pilot project in 2015, which targeted 270,000 small ruminants belonging
to the Kuchi community in three provinces, the programme has continued
to expand each year. In 2018, the total number of animals vaccinated
since 2015 were expected to reach 12.5 million sheep and goats, all
belonging to the Kuchi community and throughout all 34 provinces of
Afghanistan. In addition to the targeted vaccination of animals,
3,004 serum samples (2015 to 2017) were collected pre- and
post-vaccination, which were submitted to the Central Veterinary
Diagnostic and Research Laboratory for testing and analysis, with
another 3,000 samples were planned to take in 2018 (Ministry of
Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock, Kabul, Afghanistan). Afghanistan
is war affected country having lack of advanced diagnostic tools and
research institutions so scare data is available on PPR in Afghanistan,
however there is animal movement from Afghanistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
and Baluchistan provinces of Pakistan; hence it is observed in these
provinces that PPR are reported in large scale by Pakistani
veterinarians and researches (Personal Observation). So it is necessary
to investigate PPR from grass root and to know the epidemiology of
disease for better contribution in the region.
Mongolia: The 2016–2017 introduction of PPRV into livestock in
Mongolia was followed by mass mortality of the critically endangered
Mongolian saiga antelope and other rare wild ungulates (Pruvot et al.,
2020). In the fall of 2016, an outbreak of PPRV among domestic sheep and
goats in western Mongolia was confirmed, probably originating from
uncontrolled transboundary livestock movements (Shatar et al., 2017;
Ts Uuganbayar et al., 2017). In total, 83,889 small ruminants from 1,081
households were reportedly affected by PPR in 14 soums (districts) of 3
aimags (provinces), of which 12,976 small ruminants died (overall
case-fatality risk 15.5%) (FAO, 2019). After this initial outbreak,
control measures included vaccination of 4,632,200 sheep and 5,800,318
goats in and around the outbreak area in October 2016. Although the
vaccination campaign successfully curbed the epidemic in livestock, on
December 27, 2016, deaths among the Mongolian saiga antelope (subspeciesSaiga tatarica mongolica ) from PPRV infection were confirmed;
later, deaths from PPRV infection of Siberian ibex (Capra
sibirica ) and goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa ) were also
confirmed (Young et al., 2010). In the following months, thousands of
critically endangered Mongolian saiga died.
The Mongolian saiga antelope (hereafter saiga) is a nomadic antelope
that now occupies <20% of its historic range in 2 provinces
of Mongolia (Khovd and Gobi-Altai), representing 36,000
km2 of desert steppe bordered by high mountain ranges,
lakes, and sand dunes (Young et al., 2010). The saiga range partially
overlaps that of mountain ungulates, including Siberian ibex, Argali
sheep (Ovis ammon ), and other plains ungulates such as goitered
gazelle and Mongolian gazelle (Procapra gutturosa ). It is also
dominated by livestock; >1.5 million sheep and goats in the
8 soums overlapping the saiga range (Livestock census, 2016) are
seasonally grazed over both mountain and desert steppe areas
(Lkhagvadorj et al., 2013). PPRV outbreak mapping suggested that
wildlife may have been infected earlier (possibly July 2016) than the
first confirmed case (December 2016) and that wildlife infections
closely followed the timing of the livestock outbreak. The absence of
laboratory confirmation of PPRV infection for these initially
unconfirmed clusters warrants cautious interpretation, but strong
epidemiologic evidence indicates that these suspected cases were part of
the same PPRV outbreak. The apparent spatial discontinuity between the 2
outbreak foci supports the hypothesis that the spread of PPR was mainly
driven by livestock movement, because the wild mountain ungulates (ibex
in the first putative outbreak focus) are relatively resident and
unlikely to move long distances across multiple ecotypes. This spatial
discontinuity also suggests multiple spillover events from livestock to
different wildlife populations, which will require further analysis
based on genetic data.
The early onset of PPRV in ibex and the lower and more prolonged
incidence of cases in this species (at least until January 2018) are in
contrast with the rapid transmission through the saiga population
(apparently ceased by June 2017). This contrast in incidence suggests
different dynamics of PPRV transmission in the 2 species, influenced by
population structure, habitat, and interspecies-intraspecies
interactions. Further work, including identification of shared resources
between species (e.g., watering points, residual snow patches, and
mineral licks), contact rates, and modeling should be conducted to
better determine the most likely transmission routes and the respective
roles of these wild and domestic ungulates in this multi host system.
The probable 5-month delay between the first unconfirmed cases
documented and the first confirmation in saiga underscores the value of
maintaining operational wildlife health surveillance systems for early
detection of wildlife illness and deaths. The spatiotemporal patterns of
cases among wildlife were similar to those among livestock affected by
the PPRV outbreak, suggesting spillover of virus from livestock at
multiple locations and time points and subsequent spread among wild
ungulates. Estimates of saiga abundance suggested a population decline
of 80%, raising substantial concerns for the species’ survival.
Consideration of the entire ungulate community (wild and domestic) is
essential for elucidating the epidemiology of PPRV in Mongolia,
addressing the threats to wild ungulate conservation, and achieving
global PPRV eradication (Pruvot et al., 2020).
Tajikistan: PPR was reported in Tajikistan annually between
2005 and 2014. In 2005, samples from sick and dead goats from farms in
Tajikistan demonstrated for the first time the occurrence of PPR in
Central Asia (Orynbayev et al., 2005). In 2006, seroprevalence of PPR in
small ruminants was reported in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in samples
taken from livestock before the vaccination campaign started in the
Central Asian region; however, no virus was isolated (Orynbayev et al.,
2006). A study conducted by Kwiatek et al. (2007) in which sporadic
occurrence of PPR in three districts of Tajikistan is described. The
causal strain (PPR Tajikistan) was characterized and the sequence of its
N gene was compared with that of 43 other strains isolated since 1968 in
Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The study demonstrated the value of
the N gene as a target in comparing isolates obtained over an extended
period of evolution, and that clustering was related to the geographical
origin of strains. The local veterinarians described the outbreaks as
Pasteurellosis, but later on it was sporadic occurrence of PPR in
Tajikistan. The country is deficit in research and innovation so limited
work has been reported on PPR; however, the disease is endemic in
adjacent neighbor countries like Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. So it
is important to include Tajikistan in the regional control and
eradication program in future to tear out the root of disease (PPR) from
the geo-strategically and socioeconomically deep rooted and
interconnected neighbor’s countries in the region including China,
Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Tajikistan
and Kazakhstan.