Development of Vaccines Toward the Global Control and Eradication of Foot-and-mouth Disease

Table 1.  Current and ideal profile of foot-and-mouth disease vaccines for global eradication.

Characteristic	Current status	Ideal	Ref.
Prevents infection	No	Yes	[5,6,24]
Onset of protective immunity (dpv)	7†	1	[6,19,25]
Broad cross-protection	Only within some serotypes	Across all 7 serotypes	[2]
Duration of immunity	4–12 months‡	Lifelong	[11,21,22]
Shelf life (years)	1	>4§	[32]
Requirement for high biosafety containment	Yes, growth of large amounts of infectious virus	No, noninfectious or attenuated vaccine virus production platform	[32]
DIVA compatible	Requires antigen purification	Negative marker engineered into vaccine platform	[105]
Ability to rapidly incorporate emerging viral strains	Requires adaptation of field strains	Allows rapid production of new antigens	[32]
Short withdrawal period for food consumption (days)	21–60¶	≤21	[32]
Thermal stability	Requires refrigeration	No refrigeration required	[32]
Cost	Moderate	Low	[32]

^†Vaccines containing high antigen loads can induce partial protection at 4 dpv.
^‡Dependent on vaccine formulation and species.
^§Recommendation from Global Roadmap for Improving Tools to control FMD, Agra, India 2006.^[106]
¶Varies from country to country.
DIVA: Differentiating infected from vaccinated animals; dpv: Days post-vaccination.

Authors and Disclosures

Luis L Rodriguez^†1 and Cyril G Gay<sup>2

1</sup>Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Orient Point, New York, NY, USA
²Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Office of National Programs, Animal Production and Protection, Beltsville, MD, USA

^†Author for correspondence
Tel.: +1 631 323 3364 Fax: +1 631 323 3006 luis.rodriguez@ars.usda.gov

Sidebar

Key Issues

• Foot-and-mouth disease is a devastating disease of farm animals that negatively affects the livelihoods of millions of people around the world.

• Control programs based on test-and-slaughter policies without vaccination are not feasible in endemic countries, most of which are developing countries highly dependent on livestock for their economy and the health of their citizens.

• Success in eradicating the disease in Europe and in most of South America was achieved after sustained and expensive mass vaccination efforts, which are required to attain herd immunity.

• Global eradication using current mass vaccination strategies may not be feasible for impoverished regions that need it the most and can afford it the least.

• Existing foot-and-mouth vaccines are not suitable for global eradication because they:
  – Induce short-term protection requiring re-vaccination every 6 months or less
  – Do not cross-protect against the multiple viral serotypes (seven) and subtypes (dozens)
  – Have a short shelf life and are heat labile requiring cold chain from production to delivery
  – Require expensive biosafety level 3 facilities for growing live virus during vaccine production

• There is a need for vaccines capable of preventing infection and inducing life-long immunity against multiple serotypes and subtypes.

• These vaccines should be safely and inexpensively produced, and easy to deliver.

• There is a need for better integrated strategies that fit the specific needs of endemic regions.

• Only when these critical components are available will the global eradication of foot-and-mouth disease virus be possible.