An overview of control strategy and diagnostic technology for foot-and-mouth disease in China

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of most contagious animal diseases. It affects millions of cloven-hoofed animals and causes huge economic losses in many countries of the world. There are seven serotypes of which three (O, A and Asia 1) are endemic in China. Efficient control of FMD in China is crucial for the prevention and control of FMD in Asia and throughout the world. For the control of FMD, a powerful veterinary administration, a well-trained veterinary staff, a system of rapid and accurate diagnostic procedures and, in many countries, compulsory vaccination of susceptible animals are indispensable. This article strives to outline the Chinese animal disease control and prevention system, in particular for FMD, with the emphasis on diagnostic procedures applied in Chinese laboratories. In addition, new technologies for FMD diagnosis, which are currently in the phase of development or in the process of validation in Chinese laboratories, are described, such as lateral flow devices (LFD), Mab-based ELISAs, reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) and gold nanopariticle immuno-PCR (GNP-IPCR).

Figure 1

Agarose gel electrophoresis analysis of RT-LAMP products using FMDV reference strains. Lane M, DNA 100 bp Marker; Lane 1, PRRSV; Lane 2, O/CHA/1999; Lane 3, A/CHA/2009; Lane 4, Asia 1/CHA/2005.

Figure 2

Detection of serial dilutions of purified FMDV using GNP-IPCR and ELISA. The detect limit of ELISA was 100 ng/ml purified FMDV and that of GNP-IPCR was 10 fg/ml.