Differentiation of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus Serotypes in Animals in High-Risk Zones of Georgia

Toklikishvili N,Tchigitashvili T,Lagani V,Donduashvili M,Turmanidze M,Mamisashvili E,Tigilauri T,Kerdzevadze L,Goginashvili K

doi:10.16966/2576-6457.148

Abstract

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is the most important economic threat to the livestock industry. Outbreaks of FMD can have a devastating impact on livestock production and trade, resulting in significant economic losses in the agricultural sector. As a result, vaccination and containment programs have been implemented internationally to minimize the spread of FMDV. The national vaccination program has been implemented in Georgia since 2012, vaccinating Large Ruminants (LR) and Small Ruminants (SR) with trivalent (A, O, Asia1) vaccine twice annually. However, active seromonitoring surveillance still shows a high seroprevalence of the disease, indicating virus circulation. In this study we attempted to estimate the prevalence of different FMDV serotypes in various risk zones within Georgia. A total of 4991 small and large ruminants were tested for the presence of FMDV nonstructural proteins (NSP) in the blood, and the exact serotypes of positive animals were further investigated through structural protein (SP) based assays. The results show that significant percentages (6.6%) of vaccinated animals were affected by FMD, and those positive animals are usually affected by more than one FMDV serotype. As such, our data call upon a stricter vaccination and monitoring program for FMDV in Georgia, especially considering that due to the geographic location of Georgia, the presence of FMD can have significant impact on transit and can be a threat for other countries as well.

Highlights

Livestock production is an important economic source for countries with poor economies [1]
In this work we present the results of the FMD Virus (FMDV) sero-surveillance across Georgia
Samples with Percentage Inhibition (PI) ≥ 50% are considered as positives; Samples with PI

Summary

Introduction

Livestock production is an important economic source for countries with poor economies [1]. Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is the most important contagious transboundary animal disease. FMD has a great potential of causing large economic losses in case of disease outbreak because of reduced livestock productivity and trade [2,3]. FMD Virus (FMDV) has seven immunologically distinct serotypes: A, O, C, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3 and Asia 1 and is caused by picornavirus with a single-stranded ribonucleic acid (ssRNA) from genus Aphthovirus. The wide host range of FMD, its highly contagious nature and the ability of the virus to spread makes the disease of great importance [4], and all of this is coupled with the virus’ innate capability of reaching epidemic levels [3]

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