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 understand virus host interactions during early phases of FMD infection in susceptible species.

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

• Identify critical aspects of bovine nasopharynx and porcine oropharynx which define tropism.
• Investigate virus-host interactions at the primary sites of infection in ruminants, their role in determining infection, and the mechanisms that lead to the formation of vesicles and how the infection carry on.
• Investigate how to prevent replication in primary sites.
• Achieve holistic and unified understanding of: viral processes, functional genomics, deep sequence analysis of diversity, host response to infection: transcriptomic and/or predictive proteinomics.

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

Enhancement of mucosal immunity has high probability of improving protection.

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

• Understand the bases for functional and predictive genomics.
• Improve knowledge of innate immunity.

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

Major gaps in our understanding of the molecular events of early pathogenesis limit the design and development of
completely effective countermeasures. Yet, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the early stages of disease are
characterised by pan-respiratory tract infection. Continued efforts to improve the understanding of virus host interactions during early phases of infection will greatly contribute to the development of effective tools to block viral infection. New molecules involved in the FMDV life cycle have been published, some may have a role in virulence such as: RHA, Sam68, JMJD6, Gemin5, Beclin 1, Vimentin, DCTN3 and LYPLA/ATP1. However, it is still not clear which host factors are critical for virulence, an important issue to help in controlling the disease.