FTA Cards as a Rapid Tool for Collection and Transport of Infective Samples: Experience with Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Libya

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a viral disease, widespread and highly contagious, that mainly affects cloven-hoofed domestic and wild animals. FMD can lead to high economic losses due to the reduction in animal production such as a drop in milk production, loss of body weight, and a high mortality rate in young ruminants. Sixteen samples were collected from animals showing typical clinical signs of FMD during the last FMD outbreak in Libya in 2018–2019. Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) cards impressed with blood, swabs, or vesicular epithelium samples were shipped to the WOAH FMD reference laboratory in Brescia, Italy, and tested for the detection of FMD viruses. Nucleic acids were extracted from the FTA cards, and molecular testing based on real-time RT-PCR assays was carried out, of which one was specifically designed for the detection of the FMD virus of serotype O, topotype O/East Africa-3 (O/EA-3), that was further confirmed by a sequence analysis of the VP1 gene. The phylogenetic analysis of the VP1 gene showed a nucleotide identity of more than 99% between the virus circulating in Libya and the FMD virus strains isolated in Algeria in 2019.

Field Evaluation of a Safe, Easy, and Low-Cost Protocol for Shipment of Samples from Suspected Cases of Foot-and-Mouth Disease to Diagnostic Laboratories

“…Numerous studies on different devices or processes for the shipment of samples have been carried out. Some are based on the use of FTA cards for FMD [35,39,40] or for avian influenza viruses [41]. Other studies were related to the use of LFDs for FMDV [42] or for influenza virus H5N1 [43], which allow virus identification in the field but do not include any virus inactivation step.…”