New Virus-Free FMD Vaccine Developed

By CnAgri2012-07-09 19:29:43 Print

A foot and mouth disease vaccine has been developed that does not use a live FMD virus and that can be used to identify an infected from inoculated animal.

The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate's high-containment Plum Island Animal Disease Center, located off the tip of Long Island, New York, scientists have produced a molecular vaccine against one strain of FMD, that does not use a live FMD virus for vaccine manufacture, and can be used to differentiate an infected from inoculated animal using common diagnostic tests.

Traditional vaccines for FMD typically have three problems: first, there are so many different strains of the FMD virus that you must have a very well-matched vaccine to have any effect; second, traditional vaccines contain live FMD virus so they cannot be produced in the United States, and; third, depending on a vaccine's quality, it can be nearly impossible to determine whether an animal is actually infected, or has simply been exposed to the vaccine.

Unless one can differentiate between vaccinated and infected animals, those animals vaccinated outside the US with the traditional vaccine would be prohibited from entering any country that is designated FMD free. The United States has been FMD-free since 1929, but that is no guarantee that the disease will not strike again, as the UK learned in 2001after being FMD-free for 34 years.

The development of the vaccine was a team effort that required new scientific discoveries in order to work properly.