Epidemiological situation of foot-and-mouth disease in 2014–2015 and the beginning of 2016

Abstract

This article presents key information about foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks around the world, based on data from Office International des Epizooties (OIE), World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (WRL FMD) and the European Laboratory for Foot and Mouth Disease (EURL) at the Pirbright Institute. In the years 2014–2015 and early 2016, FMD caused by immunologically diverse serotypes O, A, Asia 1, SAT 1, SAT 2, SAT 3 occurred in areas of Asia and Africa, but there were no new outbreaks of the disease in South America. Within this period of time the dominating serotype was serotype O. For many years there were no reports about outbreaks caused by serotype C, the last of them occurring in 2004 (Brazil, Kenya). Significant epidemiological events were related to spreading of the virus serotype O (ME-SA/Ind-2001) and A (ASIA/G-VII(G-18)) from the Indian subcontinent to new regions. Serotype O (ME-SA/Ind-2001) spread in the years 2013 – 2015 in the Middle East (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain) and North Africa (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco); it was also detected in 2015 in Southeast Asia (Laos). In turn, the serotype A (ASIA/G-VII(G-18)) was recorded in 2010 in Myanmar, and in 2015 appeared in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Armenia, Turkey). Those events constituted a threat to neighbouring countries and increased the risk of intrusion FMD to Europe. A reason for concern was also given by the numerous outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in South Korea, caused by serotype O (SEA/Mya-98). In European countries there have been no outbreaks since 2011 (Bulgaria). For the record, the last outbreak in Poland was identified 45 years ago, in 1971.