Published Date: 2021-06-17 22:22:33
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Foot & mouth disease - India (02): (KL) cattle, RFI
Archive Number: 20210617.8456180
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE - INDIA (02): (KERALA) CATTLE, REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
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Date: Wed 16 Jun 2021 12:34 IST
Source: The Hindu [edited]
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/steps-to-tackle-fmd-in-alappuzha/article34822360.ece
The Animal Husbandry Department has ramped up measures to tackle the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Alappuzha.
Around 3000 head of cattle have been affected by the outbreak in the district in the last 1.5 months. At least 193 cattle died of the disease during the period. Around 550 head of cattle have contracted the disease, and 100 perished in the worst-affected Ambalapuzha South and Ambalapuzha North grama panchayats [for Kerala's decentralised administrative structure terminology, see https://kerala.gov.in/local-self-government - Mod.AS]. The disease has also been reported from Thakazhi, Thalavady, Edathua, Chettikulangara, Aryad, Pandanad, and Chengannur.
Treatment and vaccination are being carried out to check the spread of the disease. The department has deployed 140 teams in the affected areas. Special teams with doctors have been deployed to the worst-affected Ambalapuzha South and Ambalapuzha North grama panchayats. Doctors have been appointed to Chengannur, Ambalapuzha, and Veliyanad blocks to deal with emergencies during night.
Minister of Animal Husbandry J. Chinchurani said the department had taken measures to bring the outbreak under control.
District Animal Husbandry Officer A.G. Geo said the department had started a vaccination drive on 22 Apr [2021] soon after the FMD cases started to [be reported] in the district. As many as 6140 cattle in 51 grama panchayats have so far been vaccinated against FMD.
The outbreak of the disease was attributed to missed rounds of vaccination due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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[For the location of the Alappuzha district in Kerala, SW India, see map at <tinyurl.com/2pua3byb>.
The serotyping and genotyping results of the event's causative FMD strain are requested; the availability of a matching vaccine is of the highest importance for India's national livestock population and beyond. The role of South Asia (in particular, India) as a source of FMD virus strains spreading internationally has been addressed in several previous ProMED postings (e.g., 20141112.2949071, 20160118.3944442, 20170925.5338677). The issue has been subject to a multinational study in a recent paper (Ref 1); its abstract follows:
"Livestock farming across the world is constantly threatened by evolutionary turnover of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) strains in endemic systems, the underlying dynamics of which remain to be elucidated. Here, we map the eco-evolutionary landscape of co-circulating FMDV lineages within an important endemic virus pool encompassing Western, Central, and parts of Southern Asia, reconstructing the evolutionary history and spatial dynamics over the last 20 years that shapes the current epidemiological situation. We demonstrate that new FMDV variants periodically emerge from Southern Asia, precipitating waves of virus incursions that systematically travel in a westerly direction. We evidence how metapopulation dynamics drive the emergence and extinction of spatially structured virus populations, and how transmission in different host species regulates the evolutionary space of virus serotypes. Our work provides the 1st integrative framework that defines co-evolutionary signatures of FMDV in regional contexts to help understand the complex interplay between virus phenotypes, host characteristics, and key epidemiological determinants of transmission that drive FMDV evolution in endemic settings."
Reference
1. Di Nardo A, Ferretti L, Wadsworth J, et al.: Evolutionary and Ecological Drivers Shape the Emergence and Extinction of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Lineages. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2021; DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab172.
[Special attention to Figure 3 (a, b): "Spatial dynamics of FMDV dispersal within Western and Southern Asia." - Mod.AS
HealthMap/ProMED map:
Kerala State, India: http://healthmap.org/promed/p/308]
