Introduction: Livestock husbandry is critical for food security and poverty reduction in a low-income country like Tanzania. Infectious disease is one of the major constraints reducing the productivity in this sector. Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is one of the most important diseases affecting small ruminants, but other infectious diseases may also be present. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors for exposure to PPR, contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP), foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), bluetongue (BT), and bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) in sheep and goats in Tanzania. Methods: Serum samples were collected in 2014 and 2015, and analysed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to detect antibodies to the five pathogens. Results and discussion: This is the first description of seroprevalence of FMD and BT among small ruminants in Tanzania. Risk factor analysis identified sex (female) (OR for 2014: PPR: 2.49, CCPP: 3.11, FMD: 2.98, BT: 12.4, OR for 2015: PPR: 14.1, CCPP: 1.10, FMD: 2.67, BT: 1.90, BVD: 4.73) and increasing age (>2 years) (OR for 2014: PPR: 14.9, CCPP: 2.34, FMD: 7.52, BT: 126, OR for 2015: PPR: 8.13, CCPP: 1.11, FMD: 2.98, BT: 7.83, BVD: 4.74) as risk factors for exposure to these diseases.

| Peste des Petits ruminants (PPR) is a potentially lethal, highly contagious viral disease of sheep and goats. Domestic sheep and goats are important species for the livelihoods of poor people in many developing countries. Within societies where PPR is now spreading, poverty is widespread and the disease is expected to have significant negative impacts on livelihoods. In resource-constrained marginalised societies, it is often difficult to collect disease data in conventional ways. Participatory epidemiology (PE) has been suggested as a particularly suitable research method to study epidemiology and social impacts of diseases in these contexts. However, for PE to achieve its full potential, stronger efforts to achieve true participation and to incorporate lessons about participation and power from the social sciences may be required. This review shows that social science engagement in PE to date is virtually non-existent, but that increased efforts to draw lessons from the social sciences and to increase the degree of participation in PE could increase its potential as an important tool in disease impact assessment and control. Particular attention is paid here to the potential role of PE in future research on the epidemiology and control of PPR.

| An outbreak of Peste des Petits ruminants (PPR), possibly caused by the introduction of new animals in the herd, was investigated in an unvaccinated mixed herd of sheep and goats. Goats in the herd showed characteristic signs of PPR including nasal and ocular discharges, high temperature, diarrhea and ulcerative lesions in the oral cavity. A total of eighteen goats from a herd of sixty, were affected and two goats succumbed within two weeks. Interestingly, the disease was exclusively observed in goats and all sheep kept in the same herd were serologically positive but did not show any clinical signs of PPR. The active PPR virus (PPRV) infection was confirmed by antigen capture ELISA and RT-PCR in both swab and body tissue samples. The molecular characterization revealed clustering of the PPRV within lineage IV with significant substitutions in the nucleoprotein (NP) gene. Genetic variations within NP gene, and possibly in other proteins which are essentially mediating protective immunity, may explain the extreme infectious nature of the virus and its host-specific pathogenesis. Moreover, understanding the nature of such circulating field viruses is essential to underpin the endemic potential of PPRV and its possible spread to the susceptible wild or domestic small ruminants.

Peste-des-petit-ruminants virus is currently the focus of a control and eradication program launched by the FAO and OIE. One of the important steps in the control strategy is strengthening the laboratory capacity and improve molecular methods to characterize field isolates. This protocol describes the preparation of samples for sequencing using the MinION sequencer, from cDNA synthesis, PCR amplification using multiplex primers to loading off the sample on the flow cell. The miniPCR is used as the thermo cycler, making this protocol fully field-adapted and ready to use in the field or in a less well-equipped lab.