Published Date: 2017-07-16 21:13:40
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Foot & mouth disease - Bangladesh: (RS) bovine
Archive Number: 20170716.5179909
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE - BANGLADESH: (RAJSHAHI) BOVINE
A ProMED-mail post http://www.promedmail.org
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Date: Mon 10 Jul 2017, 12:00 AM
Source: The Daily Star [edited]
http://www.thedailystar.net/country/foot-and-mouth-disease-1430683
Over 100 cows died of foot-and-mouth disease and more than 1500 have been affected in Joypurhat's Kalai upazila [sub-district] during the last 7 days, much to the worry of cattle farmers.
The disease is spreading fast this season, [A farmer] of Hajipara village in the upazila said, adding that 2 of his cows have already died after getting infected with the deadly disease within a span of 4 days. With the fast rise of the infection, most farmers in the area are facing the immense problem to prepare their lands for the Aman season, said [a farmer] of Himail village. He lost 6 of his 10 cows to the disease.
The dairy farm owners are also worried due to the fast spread of the disease. A Dairy farmer of Bhaujharpata village said he lost his 3 cows in the last 7 days. Besides, 3 more have been infected.
Symptom of the disease 1st appears in the form of fever, said farm owners, farmers and doctors. After 2 or 3 days, the animal is affected by foot-and-mouth disease and refrains from taking food. It dies within 10 to 15 days.
Doctors said vaccination is the only treatment.
[A farmer] of Kazipara village said 2 of his 5 cows have already died while 2 others are infected with the disease. "Ploughing of my land is being hampered badly," said the farmer. [another farmer] of Hazipara said a total of 19 cows of their village died of the disease in the last 7 days.
Dr Md Jahrul Islam, livestock officer in Kalai upazila, said his office has already started working to prevent the disease from breaking out in epidemic form.
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[Kalai is an Upazila (sub-district) of Joypurhat district in the division of Rajshahi, Bangladesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalai_Upazila. From the news report above, it seems that foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has broken out in that upazila affecting cattle. The causative agent, foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is a highly infectious agent and thus can quickly spread in the contiguous susceptible populations within a short span of time.
The vaccination status against the disease in the affected population cannot be known from the article above.
A recently published article reported the detection of serotype Asia 1 of FMDV from local cattle affecting in 2012 and 2013 outbreaks in Bangladesh. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete VP1 gene revealed that FMDV Asia1 was under genetic lineage C having close similarity to the Asia1 sequences of Indian origin. The circulatory genotype Asia1 showed VP1 protein sequence heterogeneity of 8 amino acid substitutions within the G-H loop with the vaccine strain [IND 63/72 (AY304994)] used in vaccination program, hypothesizing that the 8 amino acid substitution in VP1 protein at G-H loop of the locally circulated FMDV serotype Asia1 strain may be a reason for current vaccination failure in Bangladesh (Ullah et al., 2015).
The disease is rarely fatal in adult animals but there is often high mortality in young animals due to myocarditis or by lack of milk when the dam is infected by the disease http://www.oie.int/fileadmin/Home/eng/Media_Center/docs/pdf/Disease_cards/FMD-EN.pdf. The authority concerned in the affected area should verify whether adult cows are dying there due to infection from FMDV alone or due to complications of other concurrent or secondary infections.
Reference:
Ullah H, Siddique MA, Al Amin M, Das BC, Sultana M and Hossain MA. Re-emergence of circulatory foot-and-mouth disease virus serotypes Asia1 in Bangladesh and VP1 protein heterogeneity with vaccine strain IND 63/72. Lett Appl Microbiol. 2015; 60(2):168-73. doi: 10.1111/lam.12354; available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lam.12354/full.
Maps of Bangladesh can be seen at http://www.ezilon.com/maps/images/asia/political-map-of-Bangladesh.gif and http://healthmap.org/promed/p/61652.- Mod.PKB]
[If this turns out to be the novel Asia 1 serotype mentioned above it could provide further credence to the suspicion that Bangladesh was the source of neighboring Myanmar's issues with the Asia 1 FMDV serotype earlier this year (see ProMED-mail post 20170620.5115684). It was noted at the time that the virus was similar to an isolate from Bangladesh in 2013, and where vaccine escape was also suspected. It seems it would be rather straightforward to see if the Myanmar isolate has the same substitution in the VP1 protein G-H loop region. - Mod.JH]
