The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), on May 21, 2024, handed two million doses of vaccines to government of Rwanda, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), so as to prevent Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), a highly contagious disease of sheep and goats.

FAO has supported Rwanda to develop and adopt a six-year National Strategy for Control and Eradication of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in Rwanda by 2030.

The strategy which was also presented on Tuesday to the government of Rwanda fosters evidence-based and innovative approaches to eradicate PPR in Rwanda.

While handing over the two millions doses of vaccines, FAO also committed extra financial and technical support to conduct PPR vaccination and awareness raising campaigns.

FAO delegates and government of Rwanda officials toured the upgraded laboratory facilities of which FAO has supported at RAB/Rubirizi station.

FAO is supporting Rwanda’s efforts towards eradicating the current outbreak of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) after the small stock destructive disease was reported in the country in September 2023.

This collaboration is aimed at mobilizing critical resources and expertise to effectively address the outbreak and prevent its further spread across borders particularly in the various parts of the country which have not yet experienced the outbreak.

At the request of Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), FAO committed to provide support in obtaining vaccines and laboratory reagents as well as equipment for early PPR diagnosis, detection, and prevention.

Olivier Kamana, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) said that the partnership between the Government of Rwanda and FAO is consistent with Rwanda's pledge to achieve the global goal of eradicating PPR by 2030.

"We are thankful for the support from FAO. This donation has come at a very opportune time to support the Government’s efforts to control and eradicate PPR, the disease that affects goats and sheep. In our country, it is still endemic. It is still there and we are still fighting it. We first received the support to elaborate a strategy to end this disease by 2030.This means that within six years, we will have completely ended this disease in our country,” he said.

He said one of the ways of eradicating the disease is to vaccinate.

"We have now received 2 million doses of vaccines from FAO that are going to help us to start the first step of vaccination. It is a contribution to government plans to vaccinate. But this will come in parallel with other measures and strategies to fight this disease,” he said.

Kamana commended FAO for the continued support to strengthen capacity of the animal health sector in the country and emphasized on the tremendous tool, that is Rwanda PPR control and eradication strategy 2024-2030, as an important tool to achieve Government and Global Strategy for PPR eradication by 2030.

Coumba Sow, the FAO country Representative, said that the support was provided after knowing that the viral disease was present in Rwanda by the end of 2023.

"We immediately mobilized technical, human and financial resources. We developed a strategy which we handed over to the ministry of agriculture and animal resources. We also procured two million doses of vaccines that we will immediately start releasing in the country,” she said.

She said that the developed strategy implementation comprises surveillance of the disease, equip laboratories, training veterinary doctors, and treating the affected animals.

"We have to make sure the disease does not spread,” she noted.

She said that so far two trainings have been conducted to build the capacity of veterinarians to control the spread of the disease.

"We brought experts and countries which suffered from the same disease so that they can exchange experience between veterinarians, exchange techniques and lessons they have learnt. We have to end the disease by 2030,” she noted.

FAO provided technical capacity development to Rwanda’s veterinary service through a participatory disease search and outbreak investigation training held in December, 2023, and May, 2024.

"FAO has been supporting the Government of Rwanda in several initiatives to control and eradicate PPR and other devastating livestock diseases in the country. Vaccination is key to preventing and controlling PPR in high-risk countries like Rwanda,” she said.

She noted that this should be done routinely to cover at least more than 70% of the small ruminant’s population to reduce the impact of the disease, coupled with routine pre and post vaccination sero-monitoring to assess the effectiveness of vaccination programmes.

Since 2023, FAO in Rwanda is expanding its programing portfolio with the establishment of FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) in Rwanda.

"This center is working to strengthen One-Health, integrating public health, animal health, plant health and environmental health in a multisectoral collaboration and partnership with key actors,” Coumba added.

More about the disease

Discovered in Côte d’Ivoire in 1942, the disease has spread at an alarming rate, threatening the very existence of over 80 percent of the world’s sheep and goat population in more than 70 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that PPR accounts for annual economic losses of up to USD 2.1 billion, globally.

In sub-Saharan Africa where small ruminants and their products are internationally traded commodities, PPR considerably affects export earnings and creates supply shortages.

The status of PPR in Rwanda used to be unknown, despite its prevalence in neighboring countries, but for the first time in 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources through its Veterinary Services Department, declared a PPR outbreak in some parts of the country.

A rapid field assessment of the Rwanda PPR outbreak by Rwanda Veterinary Services with technical assistance of FAO suggested this might be linked to the movement of about 300 goats into the country through the informal transborder routes; highlighting the critical importance of strengthening transboundary animal disease surveillance at both formal and informal livestock routes.

Meanwhile it was said that PPR is a non-zoonotic disease, meaning that, although it has a high mortality rate among goats and sheep, it cannot be transmitted from the affected small stock to humans.