US-UK EEID Collab: Persistence of a highly contagious pathogen: ecological and evolutionary mechanisms in foot-and-mouth disease virus

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Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) affects livestock and wild animals, African buffalo especially. The disease is widely distributed in the developing world and the lack of effective control in these territories is a constant threat to developed countries like the USA and UK where the disease does not normally occur due to rigid control policies. This highly contagious viral disease causes a fever and painful blisters on the feet, teats and in the mouth, leading to lameness, a drop in milk production, loss of appetite and condition and significant social and economic impact. Countries that want to export to high value markets like the UK and USA need to demonstrate total control of FMD, as a consequence FMD distorts the global trade of livestock and their products. Clearly, countries who have invested in eradicating the disease do not want it back, for example; introduction of FMD into the UK in 2001 cost over US$ 9 million to control and resulted in the slaughter of over 6 million animals. FMD undermines trade, impedes investment in the livestock sector, stops poor people having access to markets and limits options for their future and the future of their families. As a consequence, FMD is considered to be the most economically important disease of livestock and the World Health Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations have recently joined forces to establish a strategy for global FMD control.In Africa, African buffalo are the natural reservoir host for FMD, the virus is maintained in herds for long periods of time and buffalo act as a source of infection for livestock, wildlife and other buffalo. We do not understand how the virus is maintained in buffalo populations or how the virus is transmitted from buffalo, to other animals. In addition, vaccines used to protect cattle are not very effective for the types of viruses present in buffalo, which are diverse and constantly mutating and changing. This situation creates friction in developing countries between the livestock producers, with a need for efficient livestock production systems to alleviate poverty, and conservationists trying to preserve wildlife populations and ecosystems. The aim of this project is to determine the primary mechanism of FMD virus persistence in buffalo populations and understand how the virus constantly undergoes mutation and change in buffalo populations. Global FMD eradication, or control, will never be achieved unless we understand these mechanisms. Understanding inter-annual persistence will be invaluable for identifying troughs of low risk that can be exploited as a time for effective intervention and control strategies for livestock populations. Our findings will be scalable to buffalo populations throughout Africa. Understanding how virus is maintained in buffalo and transmitted to susceptible animals will allow us to develop better livestock vaccines and control policies to support economic development and preserve wildlife in Africa.