Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) severely affects the productivity of livestock, disrupting regional and international trade in animals and animal products. The most significant impact of the disease in low and middle-income countries is losses in production, utility and income which together affect livelihoods and impact food security and nutrition of farmers. 

In order to reduce the FMD burden, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) developed a 15-year Global FMD Control Strategy in 2012.

For effective implementation of the Global FMD Control Strategy and to address some of the anticipated challenges, regional FMD roadmap platforms have been successfully established to assess progress in FMD control. Foot-and-mouth disease roadmap meetings are organized under the umbrella of the FAO/OIE Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs), by its FMD Working Group, with the technical support from the European Commission for the control of FMD (EuFMD).

To date, four FMD roadmap meetings for the Middle East region have been held (in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017). During the most recent roadmap meeting (final report available here), 11 countries attended, and a Regional Advisory Group was elected for a three-year term consisting of CVOs/OIE Delegates (or their representatives) of Bahrain (Chair), United Arab Emirates, and Jordan and leaders/assistant leaders of the epidemiology and laboratory networks Epi MENET (Egypt/Saudi Arabia) & Lab MENET (Jordan/Egypt).

Middle East belongs to the FMDV Pools 3 and 4 (map here). Foot-and-mouth disease is endemic in all continental countries of the Middle East with four different FMDV serotypes circulating in the region (O, A, Asia 1, SAT 2).