Control of the Deliberate Spread of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most feared of transboundary animal diseases. Accidental or deliberate release of the causative agent can have both direct and indirect effects that result in massive economic losses and disruption. The direct effects of an FMD outbreak include immediate losses to agricultural production and disruption of local economies, while the indirect effects are mainly related to disease control measures such as restriction of market access at local and global levels and the high costs of disease control. To improve the capacity of the European Union (EU) to counter animal bioterrorism threats, AniBioThreat was launched with a special focus on threats to living animals, feed, and food of animal origin. As part of this project, several zoonotic or animal pathogenic agents are considered from different perspectives. FMD virus was selected as one agent to be scrutinized because it is highly contagious and an outbreak can have a severe economic impact. Ways to fight a deliberate outbreak can be demonstrated through the example of FMD. In this article, the virology and epidemiology of FMD virus are discussed with special attention to the related law enforcement aspects.

A review on foot and mouth disease in dairy animals, etiology, pathogenesis and clinical findings

“…The direct impacts include reduced livestock growth, reduced milk production, problems with fertility, mortality in young stock and indirect impact includes additional cost like vaccination costs and movement control [65,33]. Some governments have been considered the potential role of FMD in bioterrorism due to the relative case with which from outbreaks in endemic countries, highly contagious material can be obtained and severe economic losses in FMD free countries [66,67]. In most parts of Africa, FMD is enzootic and some other countries have managed tools to control the disease [68,69,70].…”

Viruses and Bioterrorism ☆

“…An effective defense requires a comprehensive approach that includes: prevention of access to viral stocks (Morse and Weirich, 2011); improved means of detecting deliberately induced disease outbreaks (Elbers and Knutsson, 2013;Khan and Pesik, 2011); rapid medical recognition of specific syndromes (eg, hemorrhagic fever syndrome); rapid laboratory identification of viruses in human or animal specimens (Leijon and Belak, 2013); prevention of human-to-human or animal-to-animal transmission (Farsang et al, 2013); reliable decontamination procedures ; development of effective vaccines (Spurgers and Glass, 2011;Lehrer and Holbrook, 2011;Marzi et al, 2011); and the development of effective antiviral therapies (Smith et al, 2009;Richardson et al, 2011).…”

Agro Terrorism: A Global Perspective

“…Predictive modeling and forecasting of dispersion patterns helps avoid disasters when a disease is identified and it helps contain the effect to specific geographic regions. Likewise, for infected animals, depopulation and carcass disposal is a necessary protocol, and interstate or international agreements may include which prophylactics or vaccines are necessary, whether there will be any veterinary or pharmaceutical stockpiling, and the types of diplomatic, legal, economic, and political response needed [65][66][67].…”