Immune Protection in Animals: The Examples of Rinderpest and Foot-and-Mouth Disease
Section snippets
Rinderpest Virus and Clinical Disease
Rinderpest is a viral disease of cattle that has a long history. The virus, a member of the Morbillivirus genus, mainly infects cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus). Morbidity is high, while the mortality rate is high with virulent strains, but variable with mild strains. A summary of the disease and the causative agent has been provided by the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) (http://www.oie.int/eng/maladies/fiches/a_A040.htm).
Clinical disease is easy to diagnose since infected animals
Foot-and-Mouth Disease Viruses
The case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a very different story. FMD is one of the most contagious animal diseases and all wild and domestic cloven-hoofed animal species (artiodactyls) are susceptible to infection. FMD viruses belong to seven serotypes (A, O, C, Asia 1, Southern African Territories [SAT] 1, SAT 2 and SAT 3) and there are a plethora of antigenic variants within a given serotype (Table 1). Strains of different antigenic structure can co-circulate in a given region and there is
Conclusions
Thanks to the efficacy of the rinderpest tissue culture vaccine, the implementation of regional and national campaigns in Asia and, more importantly, in Africa through the PARC and PACE coordinated by the AU-IBAR, as well as the launching and development of the GREP, rinderpest has been progressively controlled. Through the successful combined global and local efforts, the worldwide eradication of rinderpest is expected to be announced by FAO and OIE in 2010. In contrast, FMD is unlikely to be
Conflict of Interest
The author was an invited speaker at the Merial European Comparative Vaccinology Symposium and received travel expenses and an honorarium for this presentation.
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History of vaccines and vaccination