India and US unite to fight FMD
In its effort to eradicate foot and mouth disease (FMD) in animals by 2030, India has teamed up with the US to jointly develop a new single-shot vaccine.
According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) more than 528 million livestock population are under the constant risk for FMD.
India is producing about 300 million doses of trivalent vaccine per annum, and the demand is expected to go up to 600-800 million doses in the next three-five years once ICAR rolls out FMD vaccination to all the districts.
The vaccine available needs to be injected twice in cattle in a single year as it provides protection for six months against FMD. It is hoped that the new vaccine will protect cattle through a single prick.
Dr B Patnaik, chief of All India Coordination Project on FMD, said: “This project is a collaboration among Indian Vaccine Research Institute, Bangalore; Plum Island Animal Disease Centre in the US and the All India Coordination project on FMD in Mukteswar. We will start the trials soon, and results will be known in six months.”
He added the new recombinant clone adenovirus virus base vaccine will be sturdier, require less cold storage and be more effective than the present vaccine.
According to Professor K M L Pathak, deputy-director general of ICAR, FMD is one of the most dangerous trans-boundary animal diseases.
“Since it is difficult to cull animals once infected with the deadly FMD, we are strengthening our vaccination efforts much like the human polio vaccination drive. Our target is to vaccinate 100% animals, mainly goat, sheep, buffalo and cows. Now, vaccination is on in 54 districts. We plan to extend it to 100 districts this year, and then the entire country during the 12th Plan,” he said.
