BackgroundPeste des petits ruminant (PPR) is the most common prevalent viral disease of sheep and goats that impacts productivity and international animal trade in the world and also in Ethiopia. Despite the huge economic consequences related to PPR, little is known about the sero-prevalence of this disease at the country levels. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate a single-group summary for sero-prevalence of PPR disease in small ruminants of Ethiopia and assess the potential risk factor to contribute the sero-prevalence estimate.MethodologyArticle on PPR in sheep and goats were searched in PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, reference lists and African online source of articles that had been conducted between 1994 to 2020 and using inclusion and exclusion criteria with restricted to those studies published in English language.ResultsA total of 13 published papers containing 46 district level studies were included for analyses. The single-group summary of PPR disease sero-prevalence in small ruminant was estimated to be 27.71% (95 % CI: 21.46 - 33.96). Overall, the estimated pooled sero-prevalence at country level in sheep was 33.56% (95% CI: 18.72–48.41) and in goats 25.14% (95% CI: 15.68–34.59). Significant heterogeneity (I2 > 80%) was noted in all pooled estimates. The visual inspection of the funnel plot demonstrated the presence of possible publication bias which could be associated with the small number of studies and longtime interval.ConclusionsThis quantitative review showed that the pooled sero-prevalence to be high and regional prevalence estimates of PPR presented here will be useful in raising awareness and advocating the Governments to engage in initiatives PPR control and prevention.

Abebe, W. M. (2018). Bovine lumpy skin disease: epidemiology, economic impact and control opportunities in Ethiopia. PhD thesis, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a serious pox disease of cattle caused by LSD virus of the genus Capripoxvirus, subfamily Chordopoxvirinae and family Poxviridae. It is economically an important disease due to its effect on productivity, fertility, animal survival, hide quality, and trade. LSD is an endemic disease in Ethiopia having serious consequences on both national and household incomes. This PhD study has been undertaken with the main aim to generate information on LSD epidemiology, vaccination effect and financial consequences to support the formulation of a disease control strategy. An LSD outbreak occurred at least once in all of the regional states and city administrations in Ethiopia between 2000 and 2015. The average incidence of LSD outbreaks at district level was 5.58 per 16 years (0.35 per year). The trend of LSD outbreaks increased over the study period. Outbreaks were frequent at the end of the long rainy season and more numerous in areas with relatively high rain fall. The true animal level and herd level sero-prevalences were estimated as 26.5% (95% CI: 24.7-28.3) and 51.0% (95% CI: 46.8-55.1), respectively. Adult age (OR=2.44, (95% CI: 1.67-3.55)), contact with other animals (OR=0.41 (95% CI: 0.23-0.74)), and presence of water bodies (OR=1.61 (95% CI: 1.03-2.52)) were identified as the most important risk factors at individual animal level in relation to LSD seropositivity. The transmission rate between animals in the crop-livestock production system was 0.072 (95% CI: 0.068-0.076) per day, whereas the transmission rate among animals in intensive production system was 0.076 (95% CI: 0.068-0.085) per day. The reproduction ratio (R) of LSD between animals in the crop-livestock production system was 1.07 and in the intensive production system it was 1.09. Kenyan sheep pox virus strain vaccine (KS1 O-180) significantly reduces the severity of the disease. The vaccine efficacy for susceptibility was estimated to be 0.46 (i.e. a susceptibility effect of 0.54) while the infectivity effect of the vaccine was 1.83. The LSD field outbreak economic impact assessment revealed a total economic loss of USD 1176 per affected herd (USD 489 in the subsistence and USD 2735 in the commercial farm type). The financial analysis showed a positive net profit of USD 136 per herd (USD 56 in the subsistence and USD 283 in the commercial farm type) to LSD vaccine investment. Generally, this PhD research provides insight into the epidemiology, economic impact and control opportunities of LSD in Ethiopia that can support policy makers to formulate control strategy for the disease, which is currently lacking in the country.