Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious and economically important viral disease affecting goats, sheep and wild ruminants. The disease is currently circulating in Asian and African countries, creating problems in small ruminant farming. Current control of the disease mainly includes isolation and disinfection of the contaminated environment, and administration of a live-attenuated vaccine, which provides a strong immunity. Maintenance of cold chain for vaccine efficacy has proven difficult in subtropical countries. A thermostable live-attenuated conventional or recombinant vaccine is a way to avoid cold chain-associated problems in tropical and subtropical countries. Mass vaccination of sheep and goats in endemic countries might be a pragmatic approach to control PPR in the first phase of disease eradication. In the future, the development of a marker vaccine with a robust companion test may help in serosurveillance to identify infection in vaccinated animals to control PPR disease. Here, we discuss available potent PPR vaccines and the future possibility of developing new-generation vaccines against PPR.

Outbreaks of buffalopox or pox-like infections affecting buffaloes, cows and humans have been recorded in many parts of the world. Since the first outbreak in India, a large number of epidemics have occurred. Unlike in the previous years, generalized forms of the disease are now rare; however, there are severe local forms of the disease affecting the udder and teats, leading to mastitis thereby undermining the productivity of milk animals. The causative agent buffalopox virus (BPXV) is a member of theOrthopoxvirus, and is closely related to Vaccinia virus (VACV), the type-species of the genus. Earlier studies with restriction fragment length polymorphism and recent investigations involving sequencing of the genes that are essential in viral pathogenesis have shown that BPXV is phylogenetically very closely related to VACV and may be considered as a clade of the latter. The review discusses the epidemiology, novel diagnostic methods for the disease, and molecular biology of the virus, and infers genetic relationships of BPXV with other members of the genus.