Vaccination program continues despite price spikes due to COVID-19 pandemic

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today called on donors and members to increase funding to combat peste des petits ruminants (PPR), which the United Nations agency , in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), aims to eradicate by 2030..

PPR, also known as sheep and goat plague, is a rapidly spreading viral disease that affects and kills small ruminants, mainly goats and sheep, in more than 70 countries in Africa, the Near East and from Asia. Its global economic impact is estimated at $ 2.1 billion, with more than 300 million of the world’s poorest rural families depending on small ruminants for their livelihoods.

FAO, OIE and their partners have been tasked with helping to eliminate the disease by 2030, with the first phase of the Global PPR Eradication Program mainly supported by affected countries, which have contributed to date almost a billion dollars. Funding commitments to secure $ 340 million for the second critical phase, which is expected to begin in 2022, are needed.

While the death rate from PPR can reach 80 percent, as in unvaccinated herds in Kenya between 2006 and 2008, eradication of the disease is possible using current vaccines. The necessary tools are already available. Diagnostic tests are available and there are currently 25 active producers of PPR vaccines with the capacity to produce the doses needed to get rid of the disease around the world.

“We need even stronger political commitment and increased efforts,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu told a meeting of donors and FAO Members in Rome.

Vaccinations during COVID-19

PPR has the potential to affect 2 billion (80 percent) of the world’s small ruminant population in infected and at-risk countries. PPR is also a threat to small wild ruminants in some countries.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some 50 million doses of vaccine were administered by FAO in a number of countries, including the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Georgia, Guinea, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania and Yemen. FAO members have demonstrated a strong commitment to PPR control, providing $ 640 million (66 percent) of PPR control needs in the first phase of the Global PPR Eradication Program (2017-2021). In the meantime, the OIE has also contributed to the delivery of 19 million doses in 3 countries (Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Togo) via its vaccine bank mechanism.

However, increased commitment is needed if we are to achieve global eradication by 2030.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further complicated matters by doubling the costs of shipping and delivering vaccines.

Yet more than 600 front-line veterinarians have been trained in PPR control in infected and at-risk countries; nearly 5,000 copies of manuals and guidelines were distributed; and the capacity of PPR vaccine production laboratories has increased at least 5-fold since 2019. The latest surveillance shows that immunity levels have increased and the total number of outbreaks has decreased.

We know that the global eradication of PPR is “technically possible,” Qu said, just as rinderpest (rinderpest) was eradicated in 2011. “We need to continue to cooperate efficiently, effectively and consistently to scale up efforts to achieve global eradication of PPR by 2030.

The Joint FAO / IAEA Center for Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture and its agriculture and biotechnology laboratories have strengthened their diagnostic and monitoring capacities. The OIE is the key partner in the global eradication of PPR and the program is implemented under the GF-TADS of both organizations.

Contact

Nicolas rigillo
FAO News and Media (Rome)
[email protected]

FAO News and Media
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