Foot-and-Mouth disease Epidemiology and Vaccinology in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has the largest livestock inventories among African countries. Recent reports showed that, 56.71 million heads of cattle, 29.33 million sheep, 29.11 million goats and 54.5 million chickens are found in Ethiopia ( Agricultural Sample Survey 2015/16). Even though the country is endowed with this wealth, it happens to be the corridor of many internationally important livestock disease among others foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) (Ethiopia LMP Brief 3–2015). FMD is caused by an RNA virus belonging to the family of the Picornaviridae, the genus Aphthovirus. The virus infects cloven hooved animals and causes a high fever for approximately two to six days, followed by blisters inside the mouth and on the feet that may rupture and cause lameness. FMD is among the major endemic trans-boundary livestock diseases in Ethiopia and other developing countries with a great socioeconomic importance. Moreover, FMD is an economical important livestock disease worldwide and results in losses of production, huge cost of veterinary services and restrictions on the trade of animals and animal products both locally and internationally (James and Rushton, 2002). Genetic heterogeneity and diversification are major challenges for disease prevention by vaccination because of the selection of mutants that are not significantly affected by the vaccine-induced immune response. The mature FMDV capsid is made of 60 copies of each of three major structural proteins termed VP1, VP2, VP3, and a smaller polypeptide termed VP4. Especially in endemic settings under sub-neutralizing field conditions (as a consequence of poor vaccination coverage, inadequate vaccine efficacy and/or a poor match of the vaccine strain with field viruses) the emergence of variants resistant to virus neutralization is important. Hence the virus can escape protection induced by prophylactic vaccines used and necessitating the development of matching vaccines (Grazioli et al., 2013). The incident of new topotypes1 and uncontrolled animal movement are some of the risk factor of FMD outbreak in Ethiopia (Bewket et al., 2012). In order to control and prevent FMD, the Ethiopian government considered FMD among priority diseases listed by Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) 2 because of its major trade embargoes (Ethiopia-Livestock Master Plan Brief, 2015). To address this plan, the most appropriate control and prevention strategy is using vaccines against the circulating and new serotypes. Hence there is a need to isolate newly emerging SAT2 serotype viruses from outbreak areas, to characterize the circulating viruses on a genetic level, to study vaccine matching characteristics and to develop and evaluate a vaccine against the emerging serotype SAT2 in Ethiopia. This project aims to develop a rational approach for the design, production and evaluation of effective vaccines against circulating or new sero-types of foot-and-mouth disease virus in Ethiopia. The general objective is molecular characterization and sequence based variant identification of sero-type SAT2 FMD viruses circulating in Ethiopia that can subsequently be used to develop protective vaccine to control the disease in the country in line with the countries Livestock master plan. Additionally Delineation of a functional immune response after FMD vaccination and identification of a predictive bio-marker thereof in combination with pen-side diagnostic development will be performed. The project will be performed in Ethiopia(NVI) and Belgium(CODA-CERVA and Division Animal and Human Health Engineering laboratory of Host pathogen interaction).