The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has begun to consider the guidelines of its strategy to eliminate the peste de petites ruminants (PPR), a plague threatening to kill over 2 billion heads of sheep by 2030.
“From 31 March to 2 April 2015, the FAO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) will convene in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire for the International Conference for the Control and Eradication of Peste des Petits Ruminants,” FAO said on its website, adding that the conference is meant to develop a strategy to eradicate the disease which, it revealed, can kill 30-70 percent of infected animals anywhere.
According to the organization, PPR, first discovered in Cote d'Ivoire in 1942, has infected more than 70 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. It causes yearly world losses ranging between US$1.45-2.1 billion.
