Camel Prion disease

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reports Camel prion disease (CPD) in a second country in the Middle East

After the first case of CPD was diagnosed for the first time in Algeria in 2018, the OIE has now reported the disease in Tunisia.

It is reported that the disease is fast spreading in Algeria and it is likely that it would be the case in Tunisia and possibly in other surrounding countries.

CPD is a novel prion disease and the prion strain seems to be different from those of scrapie or Mad cow disease.

The Scientific Commission of the OIE had set up an Ad Hoc Group to investigate whether CPD could be considered an emerging disease. The Commission concluded that CPD should be considered a new disease but available evidence is inadequate to measure the impact of the disease in animal or public health. The matter would receive further attention when more scientific evidence becomes available.

The video on the disease in Algerian camels can be downloaded from the link below.

https://youtu.be/WtUyDvKmL3I

The current information from Tunis warrants official notification of the Tunisian case(s), in particular since animal prion diseases such as BSE have been found, in the past, to have serious public health ramifications

The above occurrences demand a more pronounced vigilance over imports of Camels from the Middle East or surrounding countries noting that Mauritius has recently  imported camels for its animal parks