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A new Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine being developed in the United States could greatly diminish the effect of an FMD outbreak in this country, according to reports presented at the U.S. Animal Health Association (USAHA) annual meeting held late last fall.
Indications are that the new vaccine, although still in development, would protect animals against the disease, but not cause them to test positive for FMD as older vaccines do. The false positive results have been a roadblock to vaccination because none of the vaccinated animals could be exported to countries trying to prevent FMD from entering their borders, including the U.S., which has been FMD-free since 1929.
“The possibility of FMD making its way to this country – either unintentionally or as a result of a deliberate attack on our food supply and economy – increases with every passing year,” said West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass. “I am very pleased that the USAHA decided to make FMD the highlight of their 2008 meeting. Although attention has recently been focused on other agriculture-related issues, such as bird flu and human pandemic, we cannot forget the FMD catastrophe that Great Britain suffered in 2001.”
The 2001 FMD outbreak in Great Britain resulted in the slaughter of more than 6 million animals during a span of over seven months and an estimated economic loss of 20 billion dollars.
The new vaccine could be used in the event of an outbreak to create a buffer zone of immunized animals without having to worry about trade implications, explained West Virginia Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Gary Kinder.
“With existing vaccines, immunized animals develop antibodies which help them fight a real infection, just the way a flu shot works in humans,” said Dr. Kinder. “But the screening methods used to test animals look for antibodies, not the actual virus itself. Therefore, every immunized animal tests positive and there’s no way to distinguish a genuinely sick animal from one that has merely been vaccinated.”
Dr. Kinder urged caution, though. “This new vaccine looks very promising, but it’s not in production yet so we don’t know how it’s going to work in the real world. There is still work that needs to be done on diagnostic tests to go with this vaccine.”
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
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