In general, techniques are described for performing packet loss measurement in a distributed data plane. In one example, a local router includes a plurality of forwarding units that implement a distributed data plane. First and second forwarding units may switch layer two (L2) packet data units (PDUs) between the local router and a remote router using a virtual path. The first and second forwarding may unit may increment, in response to processing any PDU of the PDUs for the virtual path, respective counters stored by the first and second forwarding units. The first and second forwarding units may update, based on the respective counters, a loss-measurement packet (LMP). For instance, the first forwarding unit, upon updating the LMP, may internally forward the LMP to the second forwarding unit. The second forwarding unit, upon updating the LMP, may send the LMP to the remote router.