In 1999, Morocco started a new sheep pox vaccination strategy which consists of vaccinating animals in high-risk areas. The vaccination coverage varies between 54 and 83 percent in provinces where a vaccination programme is carried out. In Morocco, Tunisia and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya the sheep pox vaccine in use is the attenuated live vaccine. Algeria is using a sensitized vaccine, which will be changed to an attenuated live vaccine as soon as production starts in the veterinary laboratory of Draa Ben Khedda. Morocco and Algeria are vaccinating during the spring season while Tunisia and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya until recently were vaccinating during the autumn season.
Sheep pox is a notifiable disease in the four Maghreb countries.
The countries are generating data of a quantitative nature, mainly originating from passive surveillance of the disease. Because of its endemic nature and the decentralization of veterinary services in countries such as Tunisia, the efficiency of notification may be lower than it should be. In other cases, the number of reported outbreaks might be overestimated by misdiagnosing the disease and confusing it with such diseases as contagious pustular dermatitis. In Algeria, for each suspected sheep pox case samples should be submitted to the laboratory for confirmation. In Tunisia and Morocco, diagnosis is based on clinical signs of the disease.