Officials who will be involved in decisions related to the use of vaccines to help control a U.S. outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) have two ways to access important guidelines.

The National Animal Health Emergency Management Services (NAHEMS) Guidelines and the Appendix on FMD vaccination are available without registration at http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Emergency-Response/fad-prep.php

These documents are also available on the Foreign Animal Disease (FAD) PReP collaboration Web site, https://fadprep.lmi.org, which requires registration to access.

The updated “Appendix A: Vaccination for Foot-and-Mouth Disease,” provides guidance for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees, including National Animal Health Emergency Response Corps (NAHERC) members, on emergency foot-and-mouth disease vaccination principles. FAD PReP/NAHEMS “Guidelines: Vaccination for Contagious Diseases” provides general principles of vaccination in foreign animal disease emergencies.

“The key to performing quickly and collaboratively in the face of any foreign animal disease outbreak is for every agency to be prepared," says Jim Roth, DVM, director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health (CFSPH), and the Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics (IICAB), Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, which produced the Vaccination Guidelines with funding and collaboration from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services’ Veterinary Services. “These documents provide the information that professionals will need in understanding the complexities of FMD vaccination, and for making sound decisions if FMD is found in the United States.”

The guidelines are components of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS) Foreign Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Plan, or “FAD PReP.” The FAD PReP/National Animal Health Emergency Management Services (NAHEMS) Guideline Series is designed for use by APHIS Veterinary Services (VS), and other official response personnel in the event of an animal health emergency, such as the natural occurrence or intentional introduction of a highly contagious foreign animal disease in the United States.

The FAD PReP site is hosted by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), National Center for Animal Health Emergency Management (NCAHEM).