Outbreaks of peste des petits ruminants in village goat flocks in Nigeria.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a major disease constraint of goat production in Nigeria. Investigation of three outbreaks in village goat populations in south-west Nigeria showed overall attack rates of 42.4%, 13.7% and 37.1% and case fatality rates of 86.9%, 41% and 63.9% respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed between attack rates in different age groups in each of the outbreaks. Based on the mortalities suffered the estimated average loss per goat in each of the three outbreaks was N9.15, N1.36 and N5.84 respectively. On the assumption that a goat population is subjected to an outbreak of the disease every five years these estimates would indicate that an annual sum ranging from N1.83 per goat at the highest level of loss and N0.27 per goat at the lowest level of loss could be profitably spent in the successful prevention of the disease.