National Strategy for the Control of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in Nigeria, 2017

This Strategy is to benefit from the experience of the global eradication of Rinderpest, availability of effective and ultra-modern diagnostic and surveillance tools and easily administered PPR vaccine that prevents all known strains of the viral causative agent of the disease. The country’s total resource of 109,728,554 small ruminants is made up of 41,147,464 sheep and 68,581,090 goats and spread across the six geopolitical zones (National Bureau of Statistics, 2014). Currently, sheep contribute 5% while goats contribute 16% of the 833,000 tonnes of meat production in the country per annum. The full development of these animals will no doubt improve the socio-economic well-being of rural families, assure nutritional and food security, and achieve the objectives of government in the area of gainful employment for the citizenry. Although the PPR situation in Nigeria is not adequately document, there are studies which showed 23.16% PPR prevalence in goats from twelve states. PPR is also endemic in Nigeria and neighbouring countries and limits the cross-border trade in sheep and goat. The strategic eradication framework is guided by the principles of surveillance, vaccination against the disease and treatment of the identified small ruminant diseases (including gastrointestinal helminthosis, ecto-parasitism and sheep and goat pox. The overall long term objective for implementing the national programme for the control and eradication of PPR in Nigeria is a productive small ruminants’ population that would contribute to national food security and nutrition, human health and economic growth; while the specific objective is a progressive control and eradication of PPR by the year 2023 through: Establishment of the national prevalence of PPR in sheep and goats; Mass vaccination to achieve a progressive reduction of the incidence and spread, leading to final eradication of PPR in Nigeria; Strengthening of Veterinary Services to reinforce the capacity of Veterinary Services, across the three strata of government, to face current and future challenges of animal diseases emergence and re-emergence; and the control of three other important small ruminant diseases to improve animal health by reducing the impact of these infectious SRDs alongside PPR control and eradication. The strategic objective of the programme is a 7-year PPR control and eradication programme that would be executed from 2017-2023. The expected outputs include; the control and eradication of PPR from Nigeria; control of gastrointestinal parasitism, ecto-parasitism and pox in sheep and goats; Strengthened Veterinary Services that would be capable of addressing animal diseases challenges effectively; and the enhancement of sheep and goats industry.