Pesti des Petitis Ruminants is a highly contagious disease of goats caused by virus belonging to moribilivirus genus of family “Paramyxoviridae”. Pesti des Petitis Ruminants is an acute or sub acute viral disease of goats and sheep and literarily means “disastrous diseases of small ruminants” in French. Usually goats are more severely affected than sheep. In India, Pesti des Petitis Ruminants was first reported in 1987 from Arasur village in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, South India (Shalia et al., 1989). Since its first reported occurrence in 1987, Pesti des Petitis Ruminants was thought to be restricted to southern India upto 1993, after which the epidemics of Pesti des Petitis Ruminants devastated large number of small Ruminants from northern India by Nanda (1996). Since then Pesti des Petitis Ruminants has been reported regularly from different parts of the country. The disease is considered as an endemic disease causing great loss to small ruminants of the country. Now the disease has spread all over India. There is also a common confusion of Pesti des Petitis Ruminants with pneumonic diseases of small ruminants which delays its recognition and preventive measures.
