On FMD antigen and vaccine banks

On FMD antigen and vaccine banks

Recommends:

41. That holders of national antigen banks review their holdings in relation to the risk associated with current type A strains circulating in the middle-East; particularly A Iran 05 and A Egy 06; 42. That an antigen bank managers forum (including national bank managers of EuFMD member countries) should be established, to establish mechanisms to exchange information and to resolve issues constraining the choice of vaccine strains to include in the banks, the emergency access to antigen stocks held by other banks, and to identify means that would expedite the identification and development of new seed strains/antigens; 43. SAT-2 strains are underrepresented in the vaccine banks, the risk for this should be evaluated by the antigen bank managers’ forum;

38. The socio-economic evaluation of FMD control programmes; 39. Validation data of diagnostic kits should be evaluated by the RG and the report should be made available on the EuFMD website; 40. That the decision on the venue for the next Open Session of the Research Group be made by the Executive Committee following consultation with FAO and OIE on holding a joint scientific conference in 2010;