مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Sero-surveillance of Rinderpest in Lebanon

Abstract :

Rinderpest caused by a Paramyxoviridae Morbillivirus is considered as a highly contagious disease, which can affect the susceptible cattle. The first step in the serosurveillance consists of subjecting cattle herds to mass vaccination against Rinderpest. The countries that joined the regional programs intending to control and limit any spread of this plague undertook this action. The following step required the monitoring of the rate of immunity in the previously vaccinated cattle by conducting sero-surveillances. Consecutively, other regional programs destined to fulfill this need were planned by the Joint FAD/IAEA division as the project RAW/ 5/ 004 entitled Support for Sero-Surveillance against Rinderpest for the west Asia region. Lebanon located in the West Asia region and being twice subject to Rinderpest outbreaks in the last thirty years, joined both WARECC and RAW/5/004 programs. Accordingly, around 37% of the Lebanese cattle were vaccinated in a campaign organized in 1993 by the FAD and implemented by the veterinarians of the Ministry of Agriculture. Some 1249 cattle blood samples were gathered from all Lebanese districts with the help of the local veterinarians. Sera were extracted from these samples and were later on tested in the laboratory using the competitive ELISA technique. The basic principle of this test relies on the specific Rinderpest antibodies detection in the cattle sera. The obtained results following these tests showed that only around 21.6% of the total Lebanese herds are immune against Rinderpest. However, since no disease outbreaks have been reported two years after the vaccination campaign Provisional Declaration ofFreedom from Disease is foreseeable in the near future.