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PRINT: ISSN 2221-1896
ONLINE : ISSN 2223-0343
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Peste des petits ruminants in Kenya; Pastoralist knowledge of the
disease in goats in Samburu and Baringo Counties |
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Kihu S.M.*1,2, Njagi L.M.3, Njogu G.N.3,
Kamande J.N.1 and Gitao C.G.2 |
1Vetworks
Eastern Africa, P.O. Box 10431-00200 Nairobi; 2Faculty of
veterinary medicine, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 29053-00625
Uthiru; 3Department of veterinary services, Veterinary
Epidemiology Economic Unit, , Private bag 00625, Kangemi |
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Abstract |
Peste des Petits Ruminants disease outbreak was reported in
Turkana
County in Kenya in 2007. This was the first
time PPR had clinically been reported in Kenya. Peste des Petits Ruminants
disease was then assumed to have only infected Turkana County.
Participatory disease surveillance was carried out in 2007 in Samburu
and Baringo Counties
which neighbour Turkana
County to establish
whether PPR was present in these counties and to describe the local
pastoralist’s perceptions of PPR. The methods used were semi-structured
interviews, participatory disease risk mapping, matrix scoring and
proportional piling techniques in 13 focus group discussions each with
an average of nine herders from 13 villages. Twenty four serum samples
for antibody analysis with competitive ELISA were collected from goat
herds of respondent villages. By the time of the study, no PPR
vaccination had ever been carried in Samburu and Baringo counties. The
results from this study indicated that the four pastoral ethnic
communities interviewed in Samburu and Baringo counties had previous
experience with PPR like disease. There was local knowledge of a
PPR-like disease in each pastoral community and their descriptions of
this syndrome closely matched textbook descriptions of PPR. Suspected
cases of PPR were observed in the study areas. 10 out of 24 serum
samples collected from suspected cases had PPR antibodies, and positive
samples were found in each County. Based on the local characterizations
of PPR, the presence of PPR antibodies in the serum samples and clinical
observation of suspected PPR cases, the study concluded that PPR was
occurring in Samburu and Baringo counties of
Kenya, in areas that neighboured
Turkana. The morbidity and
mortality in these other Counties may have been less dramatic and
therefore not reached the attention of the veterinary department.
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Keywords:
Participatory disease surveillance; Peste des petit ruminants; Kenya |
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To cite this article:
Kihu SM, Njagi LM, Njogu GN, Kamande JN and Gitao CG,
2012.
Peste des petits ruminants in Kenya;
Pastoralist knowledge of the disease in goats in Samburu and Baringo Counties.
Res.
Opin. Anim. Vet. Sci., 2(11), 544-553.
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