7. Global Initiative

5. West Eurasia – situation, status/progress of FMD control programs:

Three papers were discussed in this Item; the FMD situation report for Turkey (Appendix 10 - given by Dr Bulut), an update on the surveillance for FMD in Bulgaria (Appendix 11) , and progress of activities in support of FMD control in Trans-Caucasus (Appendix 12a – TransCaucasus project Monthly report), and an update on economic analysis of FMD impact in dairy sector in parts of West Eurasia (given by Dr Ferrari, FAO). The paper on the use of modeling FMD spread in endemic regions (Ankara workshop) was discussed in the STC meeting (Item 8).

FMD situation in Turkey

Dr Naci Bulut presented a report on the FMD situation in Turkey (Appendix 10). In 2011, until the 10th of October, there had been 1431 reported outbreaks, of which 928, 188 and 7 outbreaks were serotyped as A, O and Asia-1, with 261 untyped. The very large and widespread type O epidemic, which predominated in 2010, had peaked in mid 2010 but still caused > 80 outbreaks per month in January; since then it had almost disappeared, with no type O cases in September. In contrast, a widespread type A epidemic had occurred, almost to the same extent of outbreaks per month as had type O in the previous year. In addition, 7 cases of Asia-1 had been observed, attributed to 3 separate incursions from the east, following the asia-1 epidemic in 2011 in Iran. This is the first Asia-1 epidemic in Iran/Turkey since 1999, where the epidemic lingered until 2002 in Turkey and 2004 in Iran. The factors behind the type A situation were not clear; the lineage and strain were serotype A Iran 05 of the DEN-10 lineage; but recently an additional lineage had been observed suggesting a new incursion. Given the evidence of the Asia-1 incursions, additional introductions of type A would not be surprising. The coverage of FMD vaccination programmes was presented; and plans for the autumn vaccination using a range of vaccines including a newly developed Asia-1 vaccine to counter the threat of the Asia-1 strain, to which the Shamir antigen has shown low cross-protection in vitro (WRL and SAP Institute results). The new Asia-1 vaccine would be used in the autumn campaigns. In relation to Thrace region, he reviewed the surveillance since the initial report of type O in Bulgaria; a summertime surveillance in wild boar had been undertaken, and in small and large stock, following the OIE request for surveillance information to maintain FMD freedom. Seropositive wild boar had been detected in two areas close the border with Bulgaria; of almost 18,000 domestic animal sera, 18 were positive to the screening test and only 3, weak positives, to the confirmatory test. Of note is that these weak positives were located close to the Bulgarian border. The OIE had suspended the status of FMD freedom with vaccination in September, although no evidence had yet been found of circulation of virus in Thrace in wild or domestic animals, only serological positives.

FMD situation in Bulgaria

Dr Alexandrov (EuFMD) presented a report on recent findings from surveillance in wildlife and domestic animals in the parts of South-East Bulgaria covered by the surveillance plan agreed with the EU member states (Appendix 11). The current hunting season has resulted in numbers of samples that meet or exceed the numbers required by the plan, and has provided evidence of a low and variable (between weeks) percentage of sero-positive animals -but no virus positive animals (by PCR). The age