Sub-project 3 – August 2021

Ongoing work in FMD Ready subproject 3 is focused on publishing the results and working to translate outputs of the project to inform policy, drawing on the key findings of the sub-project, for example:

• Simulations using the Australian Animal Disease Spread Model (AADIS) can help inform decisions about the types of smaller outbreaks that can be effectively managed by stamping out without vaccination and where vaccination can help reduce the size and duration of larger outbreaks.
• For larger outbreaks, simulation results show that selective vaccination strategies have the potential to control FMD whilst reducing the number of animals vaccinated. Under Australian conditions, targeting vaccination to areas with higher cattle densities or targeting vaccination to feedlots, dairy and intensive beef farms appear to offer significant advantages compared to more expansive vaccination programs, with similar reductions in outbreak size and duration, but with fewer animals vaccinated.
• Following an FMD eradication program, surveillance will be required to demonstrate that infection has been eradicated from the population. Substantiating freedom from infection after an outbreak of FMD is an essential component of a disease control program and a necessary step in regaining FMD-free status. AADIS simulations have been used to show how newer diagnostic methods and innovative ways of collecting samples have the potential to demonstrate disease freedom following an outbreak faster and cheaper than traditional approaches.

 

View publications and conference proceedings here.