News

In brief...

Since the last EMPRES Bulletin - No. 24, 2003 - and the Special issue on avian influenza - No. 25, 2004 - significant events relating to transboundary animal diseases and outbreaks of EMPRES priority diseases in different regions around the world have been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) or FAO.

Rinderpest

OIE has published declarations of provisional freedom from rinderpest for the Central African Republic (February), Oman and Saudi Arabia (July) and Kenya on a zonal basis (August). See page 2.

Foot-and-mouth disease

Outbreaks of FMD occurred in Colombia in August 2004 (see page 15) and Brazil in September 2004 (see page 11). FMD virus type C was reported in Brazil after nearly a decade of absence.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza

HPAI has affected a number of countries in Asia since December 2003. See Table, page 22.

Publications

FAO Animal Health publications

A new title has been added to the FAO Animal Health publications list:
Towards sustainable CBPP control programmes for Africa. FAO-OIE-AU/IBAR-IAEA Consultative Group on Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia, third meeting, Rome, 12-14 November 2003.

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Outbreaks reported, January-October 2004

Disease	Country/region	Reporting date	Location	Agent characterization
Foot-and-mouth disease	Brazil	September 2004	State of Amazonas, Careiro da Várzea District	Virus serotype C
		October 2004	State of Amazonas, Careiro da Várzea District	Virus serotype C
	Colombia	August 2004	Norte de Santander Department, Tibú Municipality (northeastern Colombia)	Virus serotype A, subtype 32
		August 2004	A new outbreak was reported, 0.5 km from the primary outbreak.	Virus serotype A
	Georgia	March 2004	Kaspi District, Doesi Village (central Georgia)
	Malawi	May 2004	Karonga Agricultural Development Division, Chitipa District, Chiwanga Diptank	Virus serotype SAT-2
	Mongolia	February 2004	Dornogovi Province	Virus serotype O
	Nigeria	September 2004	State of Imo, Owerri District (southern Nigeria)
	Peru	June 2004	Lima Department, Lurín District	Virus serotype O
	Russian Federation	April 2004	Amur Subject (Amurskaya Oblast), Tambovka District	Virus serotype O (pan-Asian group)
	South Africa	July 2004	Eastern edge of the buffer zone of the FMD Controlled Area, next to Letaba Ranch in Limpopo Province (northeastern South Africa)	Virus serotype SAT-2
	Tajikistan	January 2004	Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region	Virus serotype A
	Zambia	February 2004	Northern Province, Mbala District, Kawimbe Veterinary Camp	Virus serotypes SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3 and O
		March 2004	Northern Province, Nakonde District, Central Veterinary Camp	Virus serotypes SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3 and O
		April 2004	Northern Province, Mbala District, Mwamba Veterinary Camp	Virus serotypes SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3 and O
		May 2004	Northern Province, Mpulungu District, Muzambwela Village	Virus serotypes SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3 and O
		June 2004	Northern Province, Chinsali District, Kaso Veterinary Camp	Virus serotypes SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3 and O
Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia	Democratic Republic of the Congo	June 2004	Ituri (northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo)
	Nigeria	July-August 2004	State of Kano (northern Nigeria)
	Zambia	April 2004	Southern Province, Kazungula District, Bombwe Veterinary Camp
		May 2004	Southern Province, Kazungula District, Nguba Village
African swine fever	Italy	September 2004	Sardegna Region, Nuoro Province
	Senegal	July 2004	Thiès Region, Thiès Department
	United Republic of Tanzania	April 2004	Kasulu District, Kibuye Village Kasulu District, Muyovozi Refugee Camp Kigoma District, Bangwe Village
Classical swine fever	Albania	March 2004	Laç (western Albania) Lezhe (western Albania)
	Bulgaria	May 2004	Burgas Region, Sredets District, Trakiytsi Village
	Germany	September 2004	Rhineland-Palatinate State, Pirmasens District
	Nicaragua	June 2004	Managua
	Slovakia	August 2004	Lucenec District, Masková Locality
Peste des petits ruminants	Côte d’Ivoire	July 2004	Lagunes Region, Abidjan Department, Jacqueville District (southern Côte d’Ivoire)
Highly pathogenic avian influenza	Asia	Because HPAI has affected a number of countries in Asia since December 2003, an additional table represents Asia for this disease (see page 22)
	South Africa	August 2004	Eastern Cape Province, Blue Crane Municipal District	Virus subtype H5N2
	United States of America	February 2004	State of Texas, Gonzales County
Bluetongue	Croatia	May 2004	Vinkovci County, town of Gradište (eastern Croatia)	Virus serotype 9
	France (Corsica)	September 2004	Corse-du-Sud Department: Porto-Vecchio, Cauro and Sartène Districts Haute-Corse Department, Prunelli-di-Casacconi District	Virus serotypes 16 and 4
	Lesotho	March 2004	Leribe District
	Morocco	September 2004	Ifrane Province Kénitra Province Khémisset Province Khouribga Province
		October 2004	Kénitra Province, Khémisset Province Khouribga Province Larache Province Meknès Province Sefrou Province Sidi-Kacem Province Taounate Province Taza Province	Virus serotype 4
	Namibia	July 2004	Grootfontein
	Spain	October 2004	Andalucía Autonomous Community, Cádiz Province, Jimena de la Frontera Municipality

Source: OIE Web site: http://www.oie.int/

Contributions from FAO reference laboratories and collaborating centres

FAO/OIE World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Pirbright, United Kingdom Report for January-September 2004

Country/region	No. of samples	Virus isolation in cell culture/ELISA									RT-PCR¹ for FMD (or SVD) virus (where appropriate)
		FMD virus serotype							SVD virus	NVD²	Positive	Negative	Not tested
		O	A	C	SAT-1	SAT-2	SAT-3	Asia 1	SVD virus	NVD²	Positive	Negative	Not tested
Bhutan	52	16	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	36	31	21	-
Botswana	2	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	2
China, Hong Kong SAR	12	9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	11	1	-
Iran, Islamic Republic of	9	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	4	5	-
Israel	6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	6	-	-
Italy	18	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	18	-	-	-	18
Malawi	8	-	-	-	5	2	-	-	-	1	-	-	8
Malaysia	13³	10	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	13	-	-
Mozambique	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	0	1
Namibia	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Portugal	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	2⁴	-	-
Rwanda	3	2	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	3
Saudi Arabia	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-
Sudan	37	11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	26	1	36	-
Uganda	60	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	52	10	50	-
Yemen	111	38	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	73	40	71	-
Zambia	20	2	-	-	17	-	-	-	-	1	13	3	4
Zimbabwe	40⁵	-	-	-	7	35	-	-	-	1	-	-	40
Total	396	101	5	-	30	41	-	-	20	203	132	187	77

¹ RT-PCR: reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction for FMD (or SVD) viral genome; FMD: foot-and-mouth disease; SVD: swine vesicular disease
² NVD: no FMD, SVD or vesicular stomatitis virus detected
³ One sample from Malaysia contained a mixture of FMD virus types O and A
⁴ Positive by RT-PCR for SVD but negative for FMD viral genome
⁵ Three samples from Zimbabwe contained a mixture of FMD virus types SAT-1 and SAT-2

FAO/OIE World Reference Laboratory for Rinderpest and Peste des Petits Ruminants,
Pirbright, United Kingdom
Report for January-September 2004

Diagnostic samples

Country	Date received (dd/mm/yy)	Number	Material	PCR rinderpest
Ethiopia	04/06/04	4	Lymph nodes and spleens	Negative
Kenya	09/01/04	48	Lymph node aspirates and eye swabs	Negative
Sudan	12/03/04¹	50	Various tissues and swabs	Negative
	24/08/04²	62	Various tissues and swabs	Negative
Yemen	20/09/04	7	Tissues and swabs	Negative

¹ Some samples tested for bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) and malignant catarrhal fever virus (MCFV). Some samples were PCR positive for MCFV-specific DNA and BVDV negative
² Some samples tested for MCFV. Some samples were PCR positive for MCFV-specific DNA

C-ELISA results from the examination of serum samples

Origin	Date received (dd/mm/yy)	Number	Species	C-ELISA¹ rinderpest
African wildlife via Denmark	18/08/04	45	Various wildlife from East Africa 1995-1999	Some positive
Sudan	12/03/04	24	Bovine	Negative
	24/08/04	15	Bovine	1 positive
Syrian Arab Republic²	24/06/04	62	Bovine	Most negative
United States of America	13/02/04³	3	Bovine	Negative
	19/02/04	6	Bovine	Negative
	19/03/04	15	Bovine	Negative
	08/04/04	15	Bovine	Negative
	12/05/04	15	Bovine	Negative
	02/07/04	9	Bovine	Negative
	06/08/04	6	Bovine	Negative
	06/09/04	12	Bovine	Negative

¹ Monoclonal antibody based H competitive ELISA
² Sera submitted for vaccine efficacy testing. Only one of three rinderpest vaccine batches induced seroconversion
³ Sera from commercial company submitted for extraneous agent testing

Rinderpest and peste des petits ruminants vaccine titration

Country	Date received (dd/mm/yy)	Number	Virus	Pass/fail
Syrian Arab Republic	24/06/04	4 batches	Rinderpest	3 pass, 1 fail