10 wild goats die in contagious disease in Kirthar National Park

JAMSHORO: At least 10 ibex died of PPR, a highly contagious animal disease, at Kirthar National Park, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Over 100 wild goats at Kirthar Park have been infected by the disease. The Wildlife Department workers shifting the ailing animals to another place.

The Kirthar National Park have thousands of goats in the mountain range between Sindh and Balochistan.

Experts said that the wild goats have been infected by the Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) disease and stressed for vaccination of the animals.

“At first, the nose and eyes of the animal affected by the deadly disease and the ailing animal dies within three to four days,” sources said.

Around 100 wild goats were died in an outbreak of the PPR disease at Kirthar National Park in year 2010, officials said.

The PPR, also known as sheep and goat plague, is a highly contagious animal disease affecting small ruminants. Once introduced, the virus can infect up to 90 percent of an animal herd, and the disease kills anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of infected animals. The PPR virus does not infect humans.

The disease, first described in 1942, since than it has spread to large regions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Today, more than 70 countries have confirmed PPR within their borders, and many countries are at risk of the disease.