Molecular and Seroepidemiological Studies on Foot and Mouth Disease in Bovines

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is considered as endemic in India and leads to severe economic loss to the dairy industry. In spite of a large amount of research on the epidemiology of FMD, there is a lack of current information in Uttar Pradesh state regarding the characterization of FMDV, sero surveillance of the disease, and related risk factors. In the present study, 07 FMD outbreaks have been detected in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, and Bulandsahar districts of western Uttar Pradesh. On serotyping and molecular characterization of vesicular epithelial samples from the affected animals, serotype O was responsible for 80% of the confirmed outbreaks/cases, whereas A caused 10%. Phylogenetic analysis using partial VP1 sequences indicated that the virus isolated from crossbred animals from Muzaffarnagar district was more than 90% related to those circulating in India, Pakistan, Iran and Bangladesh. The infection status (sero-prevalence) of the FMD was determined by testing the sera samples using the indirect r3AB3 non-structural protein-ELISA kits developed by Directorate on FMD, IVRI, Mukteshwar, India. The apparent prevalence of anti-3AB3 antibodies for random bovine samples tested by the DIVA-ELISA assay was 35.38%. The impacts of the different possible risk factors that were considered to affect the likelihood of FMD were calculated using logistic regression analysis. Sex was the risk factor that was significantly positively linked with FMD sero-positivity in western Uttar Pradesh (OR = 3.4038; p = 0.041). The sero monitoring of National Animal Disease Control Programme was also carried out on 308 sera samples by detecting the antibodies against FMDV structural proteins using solid-phase competitive ELISA. Out of 308 sera samples of animals, 205 (66.55%), 148 (48.05%) and 145 (47.08%) samples showed protective antibody titre (ELISA titre ≥ log 1.8) to FMDV serotype O, A, and Asia-1, respectively. The findings of the present study may be considered for strengthening the current NADCP in India.