Mapping the risks of the spread of Peste des Petits Ruminants in the
Republic of Kazakhstan
Abstract
Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a viral transboundary disease of
small ruminants that causes significant damage to agriculture. This
disease has not been previously registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan
(RK). This paper presents an assessment of the susceptibility of the
RK’s territory to the spread of the disease in the event of its
importation from infected countries. The Generalized Linear Negative
Binomial regression model that was trained on the PPR outbreaks in China
was used to rank municipal districts in the RK in terms of PPR spread
risk. The outbreaks count per administrative district was used as a risk
indicator, while a number of socio-economic, landscape and climatic
factors were considered as explanatory variables. Summary road length,
altitude, the density of small ruminants, the maximum green vegetation
fraction, cattle density and the Engel coefficient were the most
significant factors. The model demonstrated a good performance in
training data (R 2 = 0.69) and was transferred to the
RK, suggesting a significantly lower susceptibility of this country to
the spread of PPR. Hot Spot analysis identified three clusters of
districts at the highest risk, located in the western, eastern and
southern parts of Kazakhstan. As part of the study, a countrywide survey
was conducted to collect data on the distribution of livestock
populations, which resulted in the compilation of a complete
geo-database of small ruminant holdings in the RK. The research results
may be used to formulate a national strategy for preventing the
importation and spread of PPR in Kazakhstan through targeted monitoring
in high-risk areas.