Asma Latif¹, Zunaira Akhtar², Riasat Wasee Ullah^1*, Aamer Bin Zahur¹, Aman Ullah¹, Hamid Irshad¹, Adnan Rashid Malik³, Munib Hussain¹, Khawar Mahboob⁴, Shahida Afzal^4
1Animal Health Research Laboratories, Animal Sciences Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre Islamabad; ²Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore; ³Department of Animal Husbandry, Muzaffarabad, Azad Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir: ⁴Veterinary Research Institute, Lahore
*Corresponding author: riasatwasee252@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
This paper reports the findings of evaluation of Haemagglutination Assay (HA) for detection of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in faecal samples of sheep and goats persistently infected with PPR. Faecal samples (n=100) collected during an outbreak of PPR were subjected to HA and RT–PCR (gold standard). HA produced more positive results (77/100; 77%) as compared to RT–PCR (29/100; 29%). Kappa analysis indicated no agreement between HA and RT–PCR (kappa = –1.5159). In this study, we found that HA is a non–specific test for detection of PPR Virus (PPRV) in faecal samples of small ruminants, infected with PPRV. Therefore, other sensitive and specific laboratory test should be used for detection of PPRV in faecal samples of persistently infected animals.

Key Words: HA, sensitivity, specificity, PPR