Appendix 9

The launch of the Global Roadmap for Improving the Tools to Control Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Endemic Settings FAO Headquarters, Rome, 17th April 2007 Brian Perry International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

On the 17th April 2007 at FAO, the Global Roadmap for Improving the Tools to Control Foot-andMouth Disease in Endemic Settings was launched, through presentation of the Roadmap report1 to a meeting of international stakeholders from the endemically affected regions, international organizations, animal health regulators and funding bodies and from the scientific community. The process of developing the Roadmap brought together an international network of scientists involved in developing and refining the tools that are tailored to the needs of controlling FMD in countries and regions in which the disease is endemic. The Roadmap process was initiated at a workshop held in Agra, India from 29th November to 1st December 2006. It was the inaugural activity of Programme Two of the Global Foot and Mouth Research Alliance (GFRA). The GFRA was launched in 2003 as an international consortium of five institutions, Pirbright Laboratory (UK), Plum Island Laboratory (USA), National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease (Canada), the Australian Animal Health Laboratory and the International Livestock Research Institute, with a five-year research programme for developing a new generation of vaccines and other technologies for the control of FMD. Funded principally by the Wellcome Trust and the European Union, with additional financial support from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the US Department for Agriculture, Pfizer, Intervet and Novartis, the workshop was attended by 55 invited participants who were mostly acknowledged experts in various aspects of FMD research and included virologists immunologists, geneticists, vaccine design specialists, epidemiologists and agricultural economists. In addition, representatives of relevant international and regional organisations (FAO, FAO/IAEA, OIE, AU-IBAR, PANAFTOSA, PANVAC), pharmaceutical companies and institutions which make FMD vaccines, senior representatives of Indian veterinary institutions who have responsibility for the control of FMD, and key donors also participated. The workshop had the following key stated objectives: • To provide crucial momentum to a global initiative on improving the capacity of countries in which FMD is endemic to control the disease through the use of improved vaccines and other associated technologies. • To present and discuss the market demands for current and new FMD vaccines, and the longterm sustainability of such markets. • To review and critique draft research ideas on the development of a new generation of FMD vaccines and diagnostics and epidemiological tools and to evaluate their success, targeted at the needs of developing countries. • To identify and engage with key research and development partners interested in participating in a Global Roadmap for Improving Tools to Control Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Endemic Settings, including appropriate research institutes, universities, pharmaceutical industries and biotech enterprises, including those located in the developing world. • To produce a portfolio of concept notes for subsequent development as full research proposals for submission to the Wellcome Trust and other relevant sponsors within four months of the workshop. • To provide a structured report of the workshop describing outputs, roadmap structure and proposed research plan. The self-appointed mandate of the Roadmap was defined as ‘developing, testing and making available packages of tools for the control of FMD in endemic settings’. It was agreed that the use of those tools, for example in FMD control campaigns, fell beyond the mandate of the Roadmap: the group assembled in Agra were mostly highly experienced ‘tool makers’, with the tools including vaccines, diagnostics and epidemiological and economic tools. It was recognised that the mandate for the control of FMD belonged to national authorities and, at an international level, regional and international organisations such as AU-IBAR, FAO and OIE.

1 Perry, B.D. and Sones, K.R. (Editors), 2007. Global Roadmap for improving the tools to control foot-and-mouth disease in endemic settings. Report of a workshop held at Agra, India, 29 November–1 December 2006, and subsequent Roadmap outputs. ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya. pp. 88 and a CD

The workshop participants developed vision and mission statements, and two strategic goals. Vision: A world in which livestock-based livelihoods, enterprises and trade can flourish unimpeded by foot-and-mouth disease

Mission: To establish and sustain global partnerships involving institutions in foot-and-mouth disease endemic and free areas to develop, test and promote packages of tools needed for the successful control and eventual elimination of the disease in endemic settings The roadmap’s strategic goals are: 1. Between 2008 and 2012, to have developed, validated and promoted a set of FMD control packages, based on the application and adaptation of existing vaccines, diagnostics and epidemiological and economics tools, that are fit for purpose and tailored to the demands of different endemic FMD settings 2. By 2015, through coordinated priority research initiated in 2007, to have demonstrated proof-ofconcept for new, improved demand-responsive vaccines and diagnostics that will facilitate control and eventual eradication of FMD in endemic settings Prior to the Agra workshop, an undertaking was made to the principal funder, the Wellcome Trust, that concept notes for priority research identified during the workshop would be submitted to the Trust and other potential funders by the beginning of April 2007. Building on the outputs of the Agra workshop, lead writers subsequently facilitated the development of concept notes in the following key areas: • Rational design of improved FMD vaccines • Defining viral determinants of protection in order to develop improved and more stable vaccines for the progressive control of FMD in endemic settings • Understanding host responses to FMD virus infection and vaccination • Understanding the challenges to achieving FMD-free zones in Asia • Institutional strategies and economic impacts of alternative FMD prevention and control strategies in southern Africa • Epidemiological-economic support tools to control FMD in South American endemic settings The concept notes are included in this Roadmap report. Attached to this report is a CD which contains the full report in digital format. In addition it contains the Scene Setting papers presented on day one of the workshop, and copies of the presentations made.