Disease Investigation Process

Basically, if a producer or herd veterinarian notices an unusual condition, such as blisters on the nose, mouth or feet of animals in his herd, the swine veterinarian or state veterinarian will inspect the suspect animals on the farm. If clinical signs are identified, then a call is placed to federal or state animal health officials, triggering a foreign animal disease investigation, explains Zack.

In turn, a state or federally employed veterinarian specially trained to investigate foreign animal diseases will visit the farm and send appropriate samples to the Plum Island (NY) foreign animal disease diagnostic laboratory.

At Plum Island, various rapid tests will deliver presumptive or preliminary results in 4-8 hours. A series of confirmatory tests yield results in 24-48 hours. The gold standard — virus isolation — can take up to a week to complete.

Media's Role

Should FMD strike this country, the media would play an important role in disseminating the correct information and avoiding the panic that an accidental or intentional introduction of FMD could bring, Zack explains.

Dairy, beef and hog industry representatives of a cross-species working group on FMD reported on their activities at the FMD media day.

From a communications standpoint, the goal of the National Pork Board's efforts on FMD is to help pork producers with planning and preparedness, says Cindy Cunningham, assistant vice president of communications. “We want to keep our herds clean, but also know how to deal with an outbreak as quickly as possible, and that we are learning every step of the way how to be prepared for FMD.”

The Pork Board wants to maintain confidence in the pork supply, and at the same time ensure that pork producers receive accurate information on what they would need to do at the farm level in the event of an FMD outbreak.

The Pork Board is taking a very proactive stance and is committed to making sure its plan and preparedness are adequate, including allocating funding in the 2008 budget, Cunningham says.

Game Plan for FMD

Patrick Webb, DVM, director of swine health programs for the National Pork Board, and emergency management consultant Bruce Spence demonstrated their tabletop model depicting the flow of a mock FMD outbreak in a small area of northwest Iowa.

Webb explained how the identification of an infected premise quickly progresses to the development of zones for control and cleanup of an outbreak and a surveillance zone to protect the community at large.

The pair outlined the resources that must be marshaled in order to meet projections of completing the cleanup effort in one week.

Webb made it clear that major hog states like Iowa and North Carolina will implement different game plans in the event of an FMD outbreak. North Carolina has a half-dozen producers controlling the majority of pigs produced in a few major counties in the state, while Iowa's hog population is dispersed and still mainly controlled by a large number of independent producers. Iowa averages 40,000 hogs crossing its borders every day.

However, all that commerce stops if FMD hits. “So in all of our industries today, the faster we can get this (disease) quarantined or this area under control and provide assurances,” the faster things can return to normal, Webb says.

For additional information on foreign animal disease threats, see “Foreign Animal Disease Preparedness is the Key,” April 15, 2007. Also available from that Blueprint edition is a wall poster, “Be Prepared for Foreign Animal Diseases,” which features photos of typical clinical signs of Classical Swine Fever, African Swine Fever and the vesicular diseases, including FMD. Copies of the poster are available through the Pork Checkoff Call Center: 800-456-7675; ask for publication number 048072.

Rapid Test Developed for FMD

Arapid, on-farm test for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is now available commercially.

Nigel Ferris of the Institute for Animal Health's Pirbright Laboratory in England has been collaborating with Svanova Biotech AB (Sweden) since 2002 to develop the test, which was launched in April.

The small, hand-held “lateral flow” device employs the same technology that is used in home pregnancy tests. An extract of a small sample of tissue taken from an animal suspected of having FMD is spotted on the bottom of the device. This then flows up the device, and if FMD virus is present in the sample, a line forms within 10 minutes.

The test is easily performed on farms, meaning that a result can be obtained faster than sending a sample to the laboratory, and appropriate action taken much sooner.

The effort has been supported by England's Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in collaboration with the European Union's LAB-ON-SITE project, www.labonsite.com.

“In effect, we are taking the laboratory to the farm, for on-the-spot testing to support clinical diagnosis,” Ferris says.