Roadmap for the research to underpin the development of control strategies for FMD

What are we trying to achieve and why? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

To assess the social and economic impacts of the new generation of improved FMD control strategies.

What are the scientific and technological challenges (knowledge gaps needing to be addressed)?

• Assessment of social and economic factors related with the burden FMD, including animal movement data, to improve the understanding of data.
• Integration of data collected between research area and social area.
• Linking epidemiologic and economic models in endemic and free regions to support policy and management, including strategies for disease mitigation other than, or complimentary to, vaccination.
• Keep up and expand the tracking of long-distance movements, migration, geographical devastation, market development, and other socio-economic indicators that link epi and economic models to support policy/management and decision making

What approaches could/should be taken to address the research question?

What else needs to be done before we can solve this need?

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

The implementation of a choice of a control strategy against FMD epizootics should take into account several criteria in the decision-making process: the direct economic impact (e.g. public costs), the indirect economic impact (e.g. the export losses for agri-food industries), and the social impacts that may induce a distrust of public control of animal disease.