The situation

The decisions on which strains should be maintained in an FMD vaccine bank involve complex issues. 

Viruses in any region are a potential threat to all other regions, no matter the distance and consequently, should be considered for inclusion in antigen banks. However, an antigen collection should strive to reflect the major strains involved in recent epidemiological situations and the strains expected to be involved in potential epidemiological situations in the next five years. 

PRAGMATIST: Antigen Priority Tool

Pragmatist is a tool which has been developed by EuFMD in collaboration with the World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease to assist risk managers make decisions about the FMD vaccines that they purchase/maintain, based on current risks to countries covered by the bank. 

The tool is an excel spreadsheet based on two distinct considerations:
1. “Antigen risk score” which define which strains pose greatest threat of incursion and
2. “Coverage score”: effectiveness of available vaccines to protect against each virus strain.
The data are fully editable – users can employ “default” settings, or can tailor the values in the tool according to local advice and expertise.