Abstract :
A total of 162 clinical samples (34 nasal swabs, 34 oral swabs, 34 rectal swabs, 26 occular
swabs, 26 blood samples and 08 tissue samples) from 34 animals (13 sheep and 21 goats) of
13 flocks suspected for Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) were collected from live and dead
animals and tested through sandwich-ELISA for detection of PPR virus. In the live animals,
the highest positivity for PPRV antigen detection by sandwich-ELISA was reported in nasal
swabs (57.69%) followed by ocular swabs (53.38%), oral swabs (46.15%), blood samples
(42.30%) and rectal swabs (19.23%) samples. Whereas in case of dead animals the highest
positivity was observed in tissue samples (50.00%) followed by nasal (37.50%), oral (25.00%)
and rectal (12.50%) swab samples when compared parallel to each other. A sensitivity of
100% was shown by nasal swab samples in live animals and by tissue samples in case of
dead animals when compared with others, assuming them as gold standard. The study
revealed the diagnostic value of clinical samples such as nasal swabs, ocular swabs, oral
swabs, rectal swabs, blood samples and tissue samples in detection of PPR virus antigen by
sandwich ELISA in small ruminants.
