Side event - Investment for Peste des Petits ruminants (PPR) eradication

Peste des Petits Ruminants (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 heard, and the disease kills anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of infected animals. Today, more than 70 countries have confirmed PPR within their borders, threatening 1.7 billion heads – roughly 80 percent – of the global population of sheep and goats. The African continent is the most affected. 

This week at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome (FAO), alongside the Prime Minister of Tanzania and Ministers from Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Bangladesh and representatives of the African Union, the World Bank and the Gates Foundation, the EU Ambassador Martin Selmayr pledged the European Union’s continued support to investing into science, vaccination and international cooperation to eradicate PPR by 2040. This is a key part of the EU’s partnership with the African Union. 

Under the EU Global Gateway, the European Union is preparing a major new investment in PPR eradication in Africa.