A Survey for Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia in Agago and Otuke Districts in Northern Uganda

Abstract

Background: Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is a devastating disease of goats caused by Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. Capripneumoniae (Mccp). The disease was first confirmed in Uganda in 1995 in Karamoja region. Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia negatively impacts on goats' productivity but its extent and magnitude among the local communities in Uganda remain unknown. A cross sectional study was conducted in the districts of Agago and Otuke neighboring Karamoja in Northern Uganda during the months of July and August 2011 to explore for the status of the disease. Methods: Five hundred and four serum samples from goats were obtained from randomly selected unvaccinated herds and 100 goats from vaccinated herds. Serum samples were examined for antibodies against Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. Capripneumoniae (Mccp) by ELISA method. A total of 162 semi-structured questionnaires were administered to selected farmers to obtain information on their understanding of the disease and the risk factors they associated with CCPP. Eight focus group discussions were also conducted with selected farmer groups to obtain detailed qualitative information on CCPP. Results: Among the unvaccinated goats, seroprevalence of CCPP was 32 (17.7%) and 52 (23.3%) for Agago and Otuke districts respectively. Levels of antibodies against Mccp were higher among vaccinated goats than unvaccinated ones (mean optical densities (ODs) of 0.905 and 0.776, p = 0.08). Majority of the farmers 121 (74.7%) had knowledge on CCPP and recognized that CCPP was among the major challenges to goat production in Uganda. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that CCPP was prevalent in Agago and Otuke districts, which are outside but close to Karamoja region where the disease was previously confirmed. There is a need for wider and detailed studies to investigate further CCPP in other districts of Uganda for effective preventive and control of CCPP in Uganda and the neighboring countries.

Epidemiological investigations of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia in selected districts of Borana zone, Southern Oromia, Ethiopia

“…Hadush et al (2009) also reported higher prevalence as 38.6% and 43.9% from Afar and Tigray regions of Ethiopia, respectively. In other parts of the world, higher prevalence than our observation has been documented in Beetal, Pakistan (Shahzad et al 2012), Tanzania (Mbyuzi et al 2014; Nyanja et al 2013), Kenya (Kipronoh et al 2016), Uganda (Atim et al 2016), and Turkey (Cetinkaya et al 2009). An international collaborative study done by Peyraud et al (2014) also reported sero-prevalence of 6 to 90%, 14.6%, 16%, 10.1%, 0%, and (2.7%, 44.2%) from Kenya, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, respectively, using monoclonal antibody–based cELISA.…”

“…It occurs in many countries in Africa, Asia, and Middle East (Prats-van der Ham et al 2015) and is a classical trans-boundary animal disease (Shahzad et al 2016). Moreover, the disease is included in the list of notifiable diseases of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE 2008) as it threatens a significant number of goat populations throughout the world and has a considerable socioeconomic impact in infected territories (Atim et al 2016). Though disease is mainly found in goats, subclinical cases were reported in sheep and some wild ruminant species (Asmare et al 2016).…”

Seroprevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia in Western Amhara, Northwest Ethiopia

“…These findings were consistent with the results recorded by different research works conducted in different areas of Ethiopia [15, 16, 37]. Similarly, higher district level seroprevalences were also reported in Hammer and Benna-Tsemay districts of Southern Ethiopia [37] and Agago and Otuke districts of Uganda [31] with insignificant variation in the occurrence of CCPP. The difference in seroprevalence by districts could be explained by the differences in animal management system with common browsing and watering practices, the frequent animal movement to border regions, and the introduction of new animals.…”

“…The study revealed an overall seroprevalence of 8.5% (34 out of 400) in the studied goat population with widespread distribution and varied seropositivity among the study zones and districts. The seroprevalence of CCPP in this study was lower than that in some zones reported by Mekuria and Asmare [29] and Bekele et al [30] in Ethiopia, Atim et al [31] in Uganda, and Ingle et al [32] and Hussain et al [33] in Pakistan. In contrast, the seroprevalence finding in this study was higher than that reported by the same authors in other zones of Ethiopia [30] and in Uganda [31], Pakistan [32], and Turkey [34].…”

“…The seroprevalence of CCPP in this study was lower than that in some zones reported by Mekuria and Asmare [29] and Bekele et al [30] in Ethiopia, Atim et al [31] in Uganda, and Ingle et al [32] and Hussain et al [33] in Pakistan. In contrast, the seroprevalence finding in this study was higher than that reported by the same authors in other zones of Ethiopia [30] and in Uganda [31], Pakistan [32], and Turkey [34]. The variation in seroprevalence reports might be due to the differences in study areas, agroecological systems, goat management and production systems, population density, and the techniques used to define the seropositivity.…”