Sub-project 1 – November 2019

SP1 is working with collaborators in South East Asia, such as the regional FMD reference laboratory in Thailand, to improve the diagnosis of FMD. FMD virus exists as seven different serotypes and knowing the serotype is important to decide which vaccines to use. The current diagnostic tests take either too long to differentiate the serotype or are unreliable when there are not high levels of virus in the sample.

Through SP1’s work, a new test has been implemented, which will be able to speed up the process of determining the serotype. This will reduce the time and cost of FMD virus detection and identification.

Members of SP1 are part of a Regional Expert Group for FMD in South East Asia that is developing testing algorithms to be applied in all regional laboratories.  These procedures outline the most sensitive and cost effective ways for primary detection and characterisation of FMD viruses using methods such as virus serotyping and lineage differentiation.