Temporal and spatial distribution of PPR outbreaks in the region
In Pakistan, during the last decade, PPR outbreaks have increased to an alarming level involving newer areas (Ali, 2004). As, on the basis of clinical and serological methods, an outbreak of PPR was reported in goat flocks of Livestock Production and Research Institute (LPRI), Bahadurnagar, Okara, Pakistan (Ahmad et al., 2005) but amazingly no serological evidence of PPR was found in healthy sheep on same form. According to another report based on observations from 50 laboratory confirmed outbreaks of PPR and provides details of the presence or otherwise of (PPRV) in 427 tissue/organ samples from small ruminants in Pakistan. It was concluded that the disease outbreaks were more severe in goats than sheep and the frequency of disease outbreaks was greater between the months of January to April. Based on the data of 50 outbreaks (427 samples), Abubakar et al. (2008) reported the prevalence of PPR in small ruminants was 40.98 %. A greater number of positive cases were observed in the southern and northern parts of the country (30–60 %) as compared to west and south-west (10–30 %). The OIE World Animal Health Organization in 2000 also confirmed the outbreak of PPR with IcELISA at a wildlife breeding center of Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. Similarly, in district Chitral, North West Frontier Province (NWFP) now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan in June 2006, an outbreak of (PPR) was investigated in goat flocks. Based on competitive and immuno-capture ELISA, 09 (39.15) animal were positive for PPR antibodies (Abubakar et al., 2008).