Published Date: 2019-03-26 20:32:38
Subject: PRO/AH> Foot & mouth disease, Rift Valley fever - Egypt: mass vaccination
Archive Number: 20190326.6387146
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE, RIFT VALLEY FEVER - EGYPT: MASS VACCINATION
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Date: Mon 18 Mar 2019
Source: Mobtada [in Arabic, trans. Mod.TSO, edited]
https://www.mobtada.com/details/823857
Dr. Mona Mehrez, the deputy minister of agriculture, said that through the national campaign to vaccinate livestock against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and Rift Valley fever [RVF], which started on [Sat 2 Feb 2019] and ended on [Thu 14 Mar 2019], the campaign succeeded for the 1st time in reaching the target immunization proportion of 89% instead of the 81% [reached] the last year [2018].
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Animal, Poultry and Fishery Affairs confirmed that according to the latest report on the immunization of livestock, cattle, buffalo, and sheep against FMD and RVF, a total of 3.75 million head of livestock were vaccinated, of which 3.5 million were cattle and buffalo, and 250 000 were sheep and goats.
[Byline: Ahmed Nassef]
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Communicated by:
ProMED-MENA
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[Egypt has been applying annual mass vaccinations of livestock as a preventive measure against FMD and RVF since 1993.
FMD is endemic in Egypt; according to the most recent available EUFMD's monthly Global FMD Situation Report (January 2019), its incidence in Egypt is "high," the presumed FMD virus serotypes currently circulating being O (O/EA-3) and, to a lesser extent, SAT 2. (See table 16 "Conjectured circulating FMD viral lineages in each country of Pool 3 - North Africa" at https://tinyurl.com/y3ebeeh8). FMD has a very serious economic impact; it is not a zoonotic disease.
RVFV causes a significant threat to both human and animal health. Human epidemics are generally preceded by epizootics in livestock, which serve as an amplification step in the spread of the virus. The disease is vector-borne in animals; humans get infected mainly by direct contact with infected animal tissues (e.g. blood) but also by the vectors (predominantly mosquitos). Prevention of disease in animals by vaccination is considered essential to protect humans from infection.
Until 1977, RVF was known to be limited to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly as an animal disease with zoonotic potential; in humans, it was mainly manifested as a self-limited febrile illness with the occasional complication of retinal lesions. During these years, the interest in the disease beyond Africa was practically limited to those engaged in potential biological warfare agents. In 1977, the disease was recorded, for the 1st time, in Egypt where it caused a major event with critical impact upon human health, continuing during 1978. The disease was associated with severe and fatal hemorrhagic fever and encephalitis. An official Egyptian report counted 598 deaths. Estimates of clinical cases from field workers exceeded 200 000 (Egypt's population at that time was 41 million). The animal industry suffered serious losses due to clinical disease, abortions, decreased production, and deaths. Mortality was high in sheep and cattle; it was intermediate or low in buffaloes, camels and goats. The disease spread throughout many of Egypt's governorates. During the early 1980's, some batches of an imported inactivated RVF animal vaccine were applied to terminate/prevent the circulation of the virus in the delta area and in Sinai.
Since 1978, exacerbations of RVF have been reported from Egypt in 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2003. According to Egypt's OIE reports, the last RVF occurrence was in 2004. However, low-level circulation of the virus has been demonstrated there several times during the inter-epizootic periods, the disease regarded to have become endemic. New introductions, mainly by camels and cattle imported from Sudan and Ethiopia, are considered to occur.
Initially, killed vaccines were applied for the general preventive annual vaccinations, while live attenuated Smithburn-strain vaccine was introduced during outbreaks. Since 2007, the GOVs have banned the use of the live attenuated vaccine, deciding to use only the inactivated ZH501 vaccine for regular immunization against RVFV in animals. This Binary ethylenamine inactivated and Alum adjuvanted vaccine, produced by VSVRI (Veterinary Serum & Vaccine Research Institute, Abbassia, Cairo) is based upon the 501 strain of RVFV, isolated during the 1977 epidemic from a patient with fatal hemorrhagic fever hospitalized in the Zagazig Fever Hospital, 83 km [51.6 mi] northeast of Cairo. The inactivated vaccine has overcome the disadvantages of the live attenuated vaccine, such as abortion in pregnant animals, and is applicable in all susceptible animal species. Both FMD and RVF vaccines, combined, are injected to cattle, water buffaloes, sheep and goats; camels are vaccinated only with the RVF vaccine.
Some of the above, and additional data on RVF and its control in Egypt, as well as control, including vaccinations, in imported animals, is available in references 1 and 2.
References
1. Fawzy M & Helmy YA. The One Health Approach is Necessary for the Control of Rift Valley Fever Infections in Egypt: A Comprehensive Review. Viruses 2019, 11, 139; doi:10.3390/v11020139.
2. Kamal SA. 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
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Egypt: http://healthmap.org/promed/p/55]
