Peste des petits ruminant (PPR) is a contagious disease of small ruminants caused by a virus that belongs to the genus Morbillivirus of the family Paramyxoviridae. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of PPR disease in sheep and goats and its associated risk factors in Kassala State, Eastern Sudan. Across sectional study was conducted during the period from 30th August to 25th November 2015. The study was carried out using a structured questionnaire survey and a total of 918 blood samples were collected from apparently healthy unvaccinated sheep and goats in different localities in State of Kassala. A total of 546 sheep and 372 goats were tested for specific antibodies to nucleoprotein (NP) by competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA). The apparent overall prevalence of PPR antibodies in Kassala was 58.2% while the true prevalence was calculated to be 61.3%. The apparent prevalence in sheep and goats was 68.1% and 43.5% respectively. Univariate analysis showed that the risk factors had significant associations with a cELISA positive status: locality, species, age, breed, husbandry system, housing mode, animals movement (p = 0.000) and animals sharing pasture and water (p = 0.003), while sex and newly introduced animals were not significant risk factors (p = 0.771) (p = 0.050) respectively. Factors found that significantly associated (p < 0.05) with increased odds of being cELISA positive in multivariate analysis were localities, species, age and newly introduced animals. The prevalence differed between localities and was the highest in the River Atbara (84.0%) locality, whereas it was lowest in Delta North (29.0%). No significant difference was observed among the sexes. However, the prevalence differed in different age groups and was 52.25% in animals of less than six months old; 49.3% were between seven months and two years old and How to cite this paper: Saeed, F.A., Abdel-Aziz, S.A. and Gumaa, M.M.

Background Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a severe contagious viral disease, which mainly affects small ruminants. PPR is caused by a Morbillivirus that belongs to the family Paramyxoviridae. In this study 12 suspected PPR outbreaks among sheep and goats were investigated in four localities in Kassala State, Eastern Sudan, during 2015—2017. The causative agent was confirmed by a Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (sELISA), and a Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) targeting a partial sequence of nucleocapsid protein gene (N- gene) and a partial sequence of fusion protein gene (F- gene). Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis were carried out on six N- gene based RT-PCR products selected from two outbreaks occurred on border and inner localities of Kassala State to determine the circulating lineages of PPRV strains. Identity percentages were determined between isolates in this study and previous Sudanese, and other (African and Asian) isolates which clustered along with them. Results Out of 30 samples, 22 (73.3%) were positive using sandwich ELISA. From 22 s ELISA positive samples, 17 (77.3%) were positive by Ngene based RT-PCR and only 7(43.8%) out of 16 positive samples by N gene based RT-PCR were positive using Fgene based RT-PCR. The sequencing and phylogenetic analysis confirmed involvement of the lineage IV of PPRV in outbreaks among small ruminants in Kassala State and high identity percentage between our isolates and previous Sudanese and other (African and Asian) isolates. Conclusions The present study demonstrates that genetic relationship between PPRV strains circulating in sheep in Kassala State, Eastern Sudan, and PPRV strains characterized as lineage IV in neighboring African countries such as Eretria,Ethiopia, Egypt, and other Asian countries