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Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is a clinical syndrome in animals due to FMD
virus that exists in seven serotypes, whereby recovery from one sero-type does
not confer immunity against the other six. So when considering intervention
strategies in endemic settings, it is important to take account of the characteris-
tics of the different serotypes in different ecological systems. FMD serotypes are
not uniformly distributed in the regions of the world where the disease still
occurs. For example, the cumulative incidence of FMD serotypes show that six
of the seven serotypes of FMD (O, A, C, SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3) have occurred
in Africa, while Asia contends with four sero-types (O, A, C, Asia-1), and
South America with only three (O, A, C). Periodically there have been incur-
sions of Types SAT-1 and SAT-2 from Africa into the Middle East.
This paper describes the global dynamics for the seven sero-types and
attempts to define FMD epidemiological clusters in the different regions of the
world. These have been described on a continent by continent basis.
The review has reaffirmed that the movement of infected animals is the most
important factor in the spread of FMD within the endemically infected regions.
It also shows that the eco-system based approach for defining the epidemiolo-
gical patterns of FMD in endemic, which was originally described in South
America, can apply readily to other parts of the world.
It is proposed that any coordinated regional or global strategy for FMD con-
trol should be based on a sound epidemiological assessment of the incidence
and distribution of FMD, identifying risk sources as either primary or second-
ary endemic eco-systems. |
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