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The risk of importing foot and mouth disease, a highly contagious viral disease of livestock, severely restricts trade and investment opportunities in many developing countries where the virus is present. This study was designed to investigate the inactivation of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) by heat treatments used in extruded commercial pet food manufacture. If extrusion could be shown to reliably inactivate the virus, this could potentially facilitate trade for FMDV-endemic countries. The authors found that there was no detectable virus following: i) treatment of FMDVspiked meat slurry at 68°C for 300 s; ii) treatment of FMDV-spiked slurry and meal mix at 79°C for 10 or 30 s, or iii) treatment of homogenised bovine tongue epithelium, taken from an FMDV-infected animal, at 79°C for 10 s. This corresponds to an estimated 8 log10 reduction in titre (95% credible interval: 6 log10 -13 log10). Furthermore, the authors found that the pH of the slurry and meal mix was sufficient to inactivate FMDV in the absence of heat treatment. This demonstrates that heat treatments used in commercial pet food manufacture are able to substantially reduce the titre of FMDV in infected raw materials., (© OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health), 2016.)

Traceback systems in most countries of Asia are not well developed, as indicated by responses to a questionnaire by veterinary officials in thirteen countries. Marking of animals for traceback is practised only in a limited number of countries in specific areas or zones and for specific purposes only. In Malaysia, traceback has been undertaken by marking farm code tattoos on pigs. This enables the identification of the farm of origin of pigs found to be infected by Nipah virus in sero-surveillance programmes. The origin of the foot and mouth disease (FMD) virus that surfaced in the Republic of Korea in March 2000 was investigated through several epidemiological studies of suspected sources of contamination such as imported hay, yellow sand, milk collection trucks and feed delivery trucks. None of these studies gave results that indicated the origin of the FMD virus. The origin of the FMD virus that was recorded in Japan in March 2000 was also investigated in epidemiological studies; in this case, imported wheat straw was incriminated as the most likely source of infection. Comparative studies of the pathogenicities of FMD (type O) viruses isolated in Taipei China, the Republic of Korea and Japan, suggest that these viruses might have originated as vaccine strains used in a third country.

Poultry products contaminated with pathogenic strains of Newcastle disease virus are a source of virus transmission to susceptible poultry flocks. The probability of contamination varies according to the type of product. Research conducted by various laboratories in Europe has shown that pathogenic virus can be isolated from the carcasses of chickens, whether vaccinated or not, during a brief period after experimental infection. Eggs laid by hens infected with Newcastle disease virus present a very low risk. Furthermore, feathers, bones, blood and offal present potential risks if they are incorporated in poultry feed. Finally, poultry droppings used as a fertiliser can present a major risk of infection in certain circumstances.

An effective animal disease prevention and eradication programme is of great importance for meat-exporting countries such as the Netherlands. If a serious outbreak of disease were to occur, the eradication measures required by the European Union and a possible ban on meat exports would have severe economic consequences. However, historical and experimental information on which these programmes can be based is scarce. Furthermore, until recently, an integrated approach which combined the various aspects of outbreaks and risks with economic consequences was lacking. This paper describes a project based on such an integrated approach. The project covered the elicitation of expert knowledge and the development of the virus introduction risk simulation model (VIRiS). VIRiS integrates objective and subjective information concerning risks and consequences of virus introduction, and thus presents policy-makers with a useful tool for the evaluation of existing prevention programmes and possible alternatives. VIRiS is illustrated for classical swine fever. A comparison is made between the current situation and a hypothetical situation where the risk factor 'swill feeding' is completely eliminated.

To help policy makers determine the need for current regulations (which require cooking of swill prior to feeding to swine), an assessment of the likelihood of exposing domestic swine in the continental United States of America (USA) to selected foreign animal disease agents by feeding uncooked swill was carried out. The hazard was assumed to originate from contraband food items entering the USA and subsequently being discarded in household waste. Such food waste may be collected by licensed waste feeders and fed to swine. This study showed that, of the four diseases studied, the probability of exposure was highest for the classical swine fever (hog cholera) virus. The median annual likelihood of one or more contaminated loads of swill being fed to swine in the continental USA was estimated as follows: classical swine fever virus: 0.063, foot and mouth disease virus: 0.043, swine vesicular disease virus: 0.005, African swine fever virus: 0.005.