FAO and Ethiopian Government reaffirm commitment to eradicate Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR)
02 April 2018, Addis Ababa - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF) have reaffirmed their commitment to eradicate Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) from Ethiopia by 2027. This commitment was made on the Fourth National Coordination Workshop of EC-Supporting Horn of Africa Resilience, Pursuing Pastoralist Resilience (EC-SHARE) Project organized for key stakeholders.
Speaking at the Workshop, Dr. Sentayehu Menda, National PPR Coordinator with MoLF said, “Our government has developed in March 2017 a realistic National PPR Progressive Control and Eradication Strategy with the technical support of FAO after aligning it with the global and IGAD’s PPR control and eradication strategies”. He added that the Strategy is officially submitted in June 2017 to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is at the forefront of PPR eradication interventions in the Horn of Africa Region.
The Workshop Organizing Committee stressed that FAO and the Ethiopian Government are committed more than ever to eliminate the PPR disease (also known as “goat plague”) three years before the global target – by 2027 – as both have learned a lot from the already-ended Rinderpest National Eradication Campaign. The Committee further underlined that both are implementing the European Union funded EC-SHARE PPR Eradication Project in pastoral and semi-pastoral areas of Ethiopia and are already achieving replicable results from this initiative.
According to Dr. Sentayehu, the country has also developed a Five Year National Action Plan together with FAO for the effective implementation of the PPR Eradication Strategy and has put in place the necessary structures, such as the PPR National Committee, which is led by H.E. Dr. Misrak Mekonnen, State Minister of MoLF for Veterinary Services and Feed Regulatory Sector. FAO is part of this committee.
The Strategy specifically targets to progressively reduce the incidence and spread of PPR infection through risk-based vaccination and other control approaches thereby enhancing small ruminants’ productivity and production, improve trade and eventually leading to the eradication of PPR. In addition, it aims to enhance the national veterinary services by addressing the gaps identified during the Performance of Veterinary Services Evaluation and lessen the negative impact of other small ruminant diseases through complementary risk-based vaccination.
PPR is one of the major killer diseases of sheep and goats in Ethiopia where 21.6 million pastoralists and agro-pastoralists as well as about 85-90 per cent of farmers heavily depend on them for their food needs and economic benefits. The disease is known to have greatly affected the health and wellbeing of the small ruminant population in the country since its clinical confirmation in 1991 thereby jeopardizing the food security of tens of thousands of people and limiting the economic gains of the country from these animals to its lowest.
“There is no doubt that the effective and coordinated implementation of the Strategy nation-wide and the replication of good practices from the EC-SHARE PPR Project to other parts of Ethiopia will significantly contribute to the elimination of PPR from every corner of the country by 2027,” Dr. Sentayehu asserted.
The European Union funded EC-SHARE PPR Project has so far successfully vaccinated over 8 million sheep and goats against the PPR pandemic disease in Borana and Guji zones of the Oromia Region, all zones of Afar Region and Siti, Faafan, Liban, Afder and Shebele zones of the Somali Region, and South Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region of Ethiopia.
Contact:
Yonas Tafesse, EU-SHARE PPR Project Veterinary Extension Communication Officer