The study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of antibodies to Capripoxviruses among small ruminants of Odisha, India

A total of 41 clinical samples (vesicle/tongue/foot/nasal epithelium) from Indian gaur, deer, spotted deer, nilgai, chowsinga, bison, black buck, elephant, sambar deer were collected in 50% phosphate buffered saline/glycerol medium (pH-7.5) during suspected FMD outbreaks. Supernatants of homogenized clinical samples were used in a serotype differentiating antigen detection ELISA and samples found negative were further subjected to multiplex PCR (mPCR). A total of 3/11 (27.2%) samples from Indian gaur, 2/7 (28.5%) chital deer, 5/5 (100%) nilgai, 2/2 (100%) black buck were found positive for serotype O in antigen detection ELISA. A total of 3 ELISA-negative samples from spotted deer, 2 from bison and 2 from sambar deer were found positive for serotype O in mPCR. The VP1 region-based phylogenetic analysis indicated the involvement of both O/ME-SA/Ind2001 and PanAsia lineage of serotype O in the outbreaks. The wildlife species infected with FMD may pose further threat to the surrounding domestic livestock.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an economically devastating disease of cloven-hoofed animals including wildlife and semidomesticated species of mithun and yak. A serological survey was conducted during the months of June-July 2014 to gather evidence of FMD virus (FMDV) activity in yaks maintained in a farm located at Nyukmadung village of West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh. Serum samples were collected from 70 yaks and 3AB nonstructural protein (NSP) ELISA was performed to assess FMDV NSPantibodies (NSP-Abs). There appeared a positive serological response from 21 (30%) animals providing retrospective evidence of their previous exposure to FMDV, which correlated with the collected epidemiological information. Not a single animal borne post reported outbreak in October 2009 was found positive in NSP ELISA thereby ruling out any incidence of FMD in the farm after 2009. Also, persistence of 3AB NSP-Ab through 5 years post-outbreak was evident in the infected yaks.

The present paper describes the investigation of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in a private pig farm at Kotty in Kollam district of Kerala during October 2013. During the clinical phase, severe vesicular lesions on snout and skin around the coronary bands were observed in pigs. A total of 48 serum samples and 12 clinical samples (ruptured snout epithelia) were collected. All serum samples were subjected to indirect 3AB nonstructural protein (NSP) ELISA and liquid phase blocking (LPB) ELISA. In 3AB NSP ELISA, all serum samples were found positive for NSP antibodies indicating infection. In LPB ELISA, 42 of 48 (87.5%) pigs were found to have protective log10 antibody titre of ³1.8 against FMD virus serotypes O, A and Asia 1. All the clinical materials were found positive for serotype O in antigen detection ELISA as well as in multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (mRT-PCR). In VP1 region-based phylogenetic analysis, the serotype O isolates causing the outbreak were found to conglomerate within Ind2001 lineage. Pigs infected with FMD may pose rigorous threat to other susceptible domestic livestock as they exhale enormous quantity of virus. As a consequence, they should be included under prophylactic vaccination and surveillance programmes ongoing in the country.