Incursions of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus into Europe between 1985 and 2006

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the biggest threats to animal health in European countries. In the last 22 years (1985-2006), FMD has occurred 37 times in 14 European countries. Serotype O was most frequently involved in these outbreaks followed by A, C and Asia 1. Sometimes, epidemics were very limited and at other times, they were the cause of devastating economic losses. In most cases (22/37), the origin of the outbreaks could not be determined. For some of these outbreaks, however, routes of introduction and spread were identified through epidemiological inquiries. Moreover, in some cases, the origin of the virus was also traced by phylogenetic analysis of the partial or complete sequences of VP1 genes. Lessons learned from the outbreaks are still useful as most of the same risk factors persist. However, efforts made by FMD-free countries to help those where the disease is endemic are a valuable strategy for the reduction of the global risk. The present and the future potential sources of FMD infection need to be identified to best focus European efforts.

Phylogenetic structure of serotype A foot-and-mouth disease virus: global diversity and the Indian perspective

“…Genotypes 2 and 14 could be traced to all four continents with endemic FMD, whereas genotype 18 could be found in Asia and Europe. More importantly, all such transcontinental movements of virus occurred before the 21st century and have been attributed to either immigration of people with their livestock to establish colonies, to the importation of livestock and livestock products or to the inadvertent release of old European strains that were extensively used in vaccines in South America during that time (Leforban & Gerbier, 2002;Rweyemamu et al, 2008;Samuel & Knowles, 2001;Valarcher et al, 2008). Overall, the Asia, Euro-SA and Africa continental topotypes comprised 11, 10 and 5 regional genotypes, respectively (Fig.…”

Use of a Baculovirus-Expressed Structural Protein for the Detection of Antibodies to Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Type A by a Blocking Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

“…However, a serological method based on recombinant protein antigens for FMDV type A has not yet been developed. Since FMDV type O and type A are the most prevalent throughout the world (13,15,27), we developed and evaluated a blocking ELISA using a baculovirus-expressed structural protein and monoclonal antibody (MAb) for the detection of antibodies to FMDV type A in this study.…”

Immunoreactivity and trypsin sensitivity of recombinant virus-like particles of foot-and-mouth disease virus

“…Incidences of the disease due to serotype Asia-1 FMDV are mainly restricted to Asian continent. However, outbreaks due to this serotype were also recorded previously in parts of Europe as well (Valarcher et al, 2008(Valarcher et al, , 2009. In Indian context, serotype Asia-1 accounts for significant proportion of the disease outbreaks after serotype O (Subramaniam et al, 2013).…”