USDA Participates in Worldwide Research
Effort Against FMD By
David Elstein April 29, 2004
WASHINGTON, Apr. 29U.S. Department of Agriculture officials and
scientists are hosting the Foot and Mouth Disease Global Research Alliance here
today and tomorrow to discuss collaborative research to develop better vaccines
and antiviral agents against the virus that causes foot and mouth disease
(FMD).
"This meeting is important to future research and prevention
efforts," said Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman. "By bringing together
world-class research scientists, we can more effectively focus on cooperative
research efforts to help fight this disease."
USDA and the cooperating research organizations have formed the
FMD Global Research Alliance to provide tools to countries
affected with FMD to slow down the virus and to ensure that
FMD-free countries do not have outbreaks of the disease. The
alliance includes the
Pirbright
Laboratory of the United Kingdom's Institute for Animal Health; the
Australian Animal Health Laboratory at
Geelong, part of Australia's Commonwealth
Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation; the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal
Disease; and Kenya's
International Livestock Research
Institute.
USDA's part of the research will be carried out by scientists
from the department's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS), working at the
Plum Island Animal Disease Center,
located off the northeastern tip of Long Island, N.Y. The United States has not
had an outbreak of FMD since 1929.
FMD is a highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals such
as cattle, swine and sheep. Humans cannot get the disease, but can carry the
virus from affected animals to unaffected ones. Animals with FMD usually do not
die, but the disease is very debilitating and the animals' production can be
permanently impaired.
USDA researchers will work on developing a new vaccine against
FMD and will lead the effort to identify antiviral compounds to quickly stop
virus replication. Current vaccines can take up to two weeks to fully protect
animals from FMD infection. USDA scientists are trying to decrease that time to
several days, which could save millions of animals and billions of dollars if
an outbreak were to occur.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief in-house
scientific research agency. APHIS is responsible for protecting and promoting
U.S. agricultural health, administering the Animal Welfare Act, and carrying
out wildlife damage management activities. |