Browsing by Author "Sumption, K"

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Epidemiological patterns of foot-and-mouth disease worldwide
(Transboundary and emerging diseases, 2008-04) Rweyemamu, M; Roeder, P; Mackay, D; Sumption, K; Brownlie, J; Leforban, Y; Valarcher, J.-F; Knowles, N. J; Saraiva, V
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is a clinical syndrome in animals due to FMD virus that exists in seven serotypes, whereby recovery from one sero-type does not confer immunity against the other six. So when considering intervention strategies in endemic settings, it is important to take account of the characteris- tics of the different serotypes in different ecological systems. FMD serotypes are not uniformly distributed in the regions of the world where the disease still occurs. For example, the cumulative incidence of FMD serotypes show that six of the seven serotypes of FMD (O, A, C, SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3) have occurred in Africa, while Asia contends with four sero-types (O, A, C, Asia-1), and South America with only three (O, A, C). Periodically there have been incur- sions of Types SAT-1 and SAT-2 from Africa into the Middle East. This paper describes the global dynamics for the seven sero-types and attempts to define FMD epidemiological clusters in the different regions of the world. These have been described on a continent by continent basis. The review has reaffirmed that the movement of infected animals is the most important factor in the spread of FMD within the endemically infected regions. It also shows that the eco-system based approach for defining the epidemiolo- gical patterns of FMD in endemic, which was originally described in South America, can apply readily to other parts of the world. It is proposed that any coordinated regional or global strategy for FMD con- trol should be based on a sound epidemiological assessment of the incidence and distribution of FMD, identifying risk sources as either primary or second- ary endemic eco-systems.
Incidence and distribution of Foot-and-mouth disease in Asia, Africa and South America; combining expert opinion, official disease information and livestock populations to assist risk assessment
(Blackwell Verlag, 2008) Sumption, K; Rweyemamu, M; Wint, W
Risk assessment procedures frequently require quantitative data on the preva- lence of the disease in question. Although most countries are members of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the importance attached to foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) reporting or surveillance for infection varies enormously between infected countries. There is a general consensus that FMD outbreaks in endemic countries are greatly under-reported, to a degree related either to the economic or the political development level of the country. This exploratory study was first undertaken by FAO, but thereafter extended and reviewed by the working group on FMD risk co-ordinated by the Euro- pean Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The paper attempts to overcome the lack of reporting through using expert opinion to extrapolate incidence indices from countries considered to have ‘representative’ levels of FMD. These were combined with livestock density distributions to provide maps of prevalence indices, which were found to be highest in China (pigs), India (cattle), the Near East (small ruminants) and the Sahel (small ruminants and cattle). Similar patterns were found when weighted expert rankings of a range of additional ranked disease parameters were also produced, and then combined with susceptible animal densities to produce a weighted multi-species density. Results suggest that the methods can provide useful information at both national and sub-national resolution, even for countries for which quantitative FMD data is currently unavailable: two of the regions identified provide little or no data on a regular basis to the OIE and therefore may be overlooked if the level of officially reported FMD is only used. As the estimated prevalences are based on recent disease history and expert opinion, they are most likely to be inaccurate where FMD incursions are infrequent as a result of the preventive measures and geographical and trade isolation. This study, therefore, highlights the need for specific detailed country risk assessments where livestock trade is under consideration. Validating the approach including ground truthing, will require collaboration between a number of agencies and institutions, in critical countries, particularly those with high disease burdens that share borders or trade livestock with currently FMD-free nations.
Planning for the progressive control of foot-and-mouth disease worldwide
(Blackwell Verlag, 2008) Rweyemamu, M; Roede, P; MacKay, D; Sumption, K; Brownlie, J; Leforban, Y
In the wake of on-going successful programmes for global eradication of rin- derpest and the current effort to contain the spread of avian influenza, the pro- gressive world-wide control of FMD must be regarded as a major contribution to the international public good. FMD is the single most animal disease con- straint to international trade in animal products. Its control is relevant, on the one hand, to protecting the livestock industries of industrialised countries and, on the other, to the livelihoods and income generation of developing countries, where, as a general rule, FMD continues to be endemic. The strategy that is advocated in this paper is one that is based on progres- sive risk reduction of FMD in the context of progressive market access of live- stock commodities from developing countries. It is suggested that FMD control should be linked to improvement in livelihoods of livestock dependent com- munities in the FMD endemic settings. It is expected that this in turn will lead to increasing demand for effective national veterinary services and disease sur- veillance. This strategy has also taken lessons from the global rinderpest eradi- cation programme and regional FMD control programmes in Europe and South America. The strategy that is advocated for the progressive control of FMD in the endemic settings is based on a seven stage process within a horizon of about 30 years, namely: (1) Assessing and defining national FMD status; (2) institut- ing vaccination and movement control; (3) suppressing virus transmission to achieve absence of clinical disease; (4) achieving freedom from FMD with vac- cination in accordance with the OIE standards; (5) achieving freedom from FMD without vaccination in accordance with the OIE standards; (6) extending FMD free zones; and (7) maintaining FMD Freedom. Concomitant with progressive FMD control, there needs be the encourage- ment of such risk reduction measures as in-country commodity processing in order to encourage regulated trade in livestock commodities without unduly increasing the risk of disease spread. Finally, the progressive control of FMD should also be seen as part of redu- cing the overall, world-wide threat of infectious diseases to human health and economic development.