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 define role of wildlife and persistent infection in FMD endemic settings.

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

• Define role of wildlife in FMD endemic settings.
• Study viruses circulating in wildlife (e.g. are they ancestors of those isolated from domesticated animal viruses?
• What do we know about their reproduction cycle in wild species?).
• Assess the role of different species on long-term maintenance of FMDV in nature.
• Investigate pathogenesis in African buffalos (immunological data is lacking).
• Develop strategies to deal with wild species during outbreaks.

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

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

• Surveillance data.
• Collaboration with endemic countries.

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

There is evidence of infection in several wildlife animal species, including buffaloes, impalas, warthogs, wildebeest, giraffe, and pachyderms. However, the overwhelming evidence from countries eradicating FMD, is that vaccinating cattle is enough to eradicate the disease in presence of wildlife, suggesting that the importance of wildlife in controlling the disease in some endemic scenarios might be neglected.
FMDV can be detected in African buffalo isolated herd for 24 years, and in an individual for up to 5 years (peak between 1-3 years). However, the frequency and titre of virus recovered decreases over time, and a significant number of animals fail to maintain persistent infection for prolonged periods, with and the proportion of persistently infected animals decreasing with age (peak in 1-3-year age-group). Studies of antibody levels in adult and sub-adult buffalo over time is variable and may be the reason of having “waves” of new infection and/or recrudescence of symptoms.