Roadmap for the development of candidate vaccines for FMD

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

Identify the mechanisms operating in immune animals, establishing the role of antibodies and cell mediate immunity
in preventing and clearing FMDV infection.

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

• Identify mechanisms of virus neutralisation, epitope mapping, and protein structural constrains governing immunological recognition
• Establish consistent ways to measure and evaluate protection
• Discover the mechanisms that lead to the establishment and longevity of memory responses
• Characterise mucosal immune system of FMDV-susceptible species
• Understand how mucosal and systemic immunity combine to provide effective protection following vaccination or during infection

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

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

• Improve understanding of host virus interaction at the level of the infected cells
• Genome sequence of various FMDV isolates

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

Recent studies have shed light on the mechanisms underlying formation of the bovine B- and T-cell response; there is also a greater understanding of the significance of non-neutralising antibodies during FMDV infection and the interactions of antibody-bound virus with immune cells.