Published Date: 2016-10-10 17:01:20
Subject: PRO/AH> Foot & mouth disease, Rift Valley fever - Egypt: (QL) mass vaccine, RFI
Archive Number: 20161010.4549902
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE, RIFT VALLEY FEVER - EGYPT: (QALYUBIYAH) MASS VACCINE, REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
A ProMED-mail post http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases http://www.isid.org
Date: Sun 9 Oct 2016, 2:34 PM
Source: Ahram [in Arabic, trans. Mod.AB, edited]
http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/1265360.aspx
Dr Essaid Awad, director of the Directorate of Veterinary Services [undersecretary?] in Kalyoubia [Qalyubiyah governorate] announced today [Sun 9 Oct 2016], in a press statement, that 114 000 head of cattle and sheep have been vaccinated against foot and mouth disease [FMD] and Rift Valley fever [RVF] in the governorate.
Awad added that field teams were deployed in the villages to raise awareness on the benefit of immunizing against FMD, in order to preserve the governorate's livestock population, estimated at 326 000.
The undersecretary also recalled the continuation of the immunization campaigns of domestic poultry against avian influenza and the education of housewives on the disease, adding that 900 000 family owned birds have been vaccinated while 7 outbreaks were detected in bird markets. These were completely cleansed under the supervision of veterinarians.
[byline: Mohamed Adel]
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communicated by:
ProMED-MENA
<promed-mena@promedmail.org>
[These diseases are among the major transboundary animal diseases and are all enzootic in Egypt.
However, in Egypt, as in Algeria, prevention programs targeting these diseases seem to be decided and launched at governorate/province level, without coordination with other parts of the country. - Mod.AB
In view of the complex animal health situation in Egypt, characterised by the established endemicity of several highly infectious (viral and otherwise) diseases in livestock, the country's vaccination regime deserve a brief visit.(The original post referred also to avian influenza; this has been left out in the current posting, which deals exclusively with mammalian livestock).
According to Egypt's tabular annual OIE report, http://tinyurl.com/hfbrndh, during 2015 the OIE-listed disease -- foot and mouth disease (FMD), lumpy skin disease (LSD) and peste des petits ruminants (PPR; domestic) were included in the list of "OIE-listed diseases/infections present in Egypt" and vaccinations against them defined as "routine vaccinations", while Rift Valley fever (RVF; domestic) was included in the list of "OIE-listed diseases absent in Egypt during the reporting period". The last year of RVF occurrence in Egypt is reported to be 2004.
The following data, presenting the number of vaccinations per animal species in 2015, is based on Egypt's annual report for the said year.
Disease / cattle / buffalo / sheep / goats / camels / *VRO
FMD / 3 497 294 / 1 794 338 / 1 618 654 / 349 853 / - / *cattle, 1 194 194
LSD / 1 848 175 / - / - / - / - / *cattle, 434 399
RVF** / 3 667 291 / 1 627 027 / 1 658 236 / 386 974 / 222 949
* "Vaccinations in Response to Outbreaks" (additional to the compulsory annual "routine" vaccinations).
** RVF vaccinations were not presented, in the annual report, as "routine" vaccinations but as "Vaccinations in response to outbreaks".
In spite of the absence of (reported) RVF outbreaks in Egypt's livestock animals since 2004, the annual vaccinations have been continued since their initial implementation in 1993. As reported, this policy was based on the fact that RVF was considered to have become enzootic in Egypt (see ref 1). Notably, camels also have been vaccinated against RVF (see number in the above table).
According to ref 1 and as discussed in postings 20120714.1201987 and 20120506.1124542, RVF vaccination in Egypt is being applied in cattle in combination with FMD vaccination. This is also apparent from the number of vaccinations against both diseases in 2015, which are of similar magnitude (see table above). Information on the reasoning of this combination, and particularly on the sort of the RVF vaccine applied - live attenuated ("Smithburn" vaccine) or inactivated - have been requested in previous postings on FMD vaccination (see in the "see also" list of this post), and is pending.
References
1. Samia Ahmed Kamal. Observations on rift valley fever virus and vaccines in Egypt. Virol J. 2011; 8:532. doi: 10.1186/1743-422X-8-532, PMID: 22152149, available at http://www.virologyj.com/content/8/1/532. - Mod.AS
A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/promed/p/3924.]