Foot and mouth disease surveillance in Brazil

Introduction: on December 31, 2001, the Ministry of agriculture, animal husbandry and food supply of Brazil informed OIE of the progress of the state of Rio Grande Sul in fighting foot-and-mouth disease A total of 30 FMD outbreaks have been reported in Rio Grande do Sul, the last of which occurred on 8 December 2001 All the farms with foot-and-mouth disease have their animals killed and left empty for 30 days Since November 17, 2001, sentinel animals have been put into the whole outbreak area A total of 492 young cattle that have never been exposed to FMD and have not been immunized have been used These sentinel cattle come from the controlled farms which supply sentinel animals for FMD immune evaluation test EITB and liquid phase competitive ELISA tests were carried out before they were put into the farms The sentinel cattle stayed on the farm for 30 days, had clinical examination every day, and had serological examination on the 15th and 30th days After sentinel animals were released in Alegrete, DOM Pedrito and livramanto areas, livestock were released under the supervision of official veterinarians In the areas of jar í, Quarai and Rio Grande, the serological test for FMD was negative 15 days after the sentinel animals were released In nine of the 18 sentinel farms in Rio Grande area, clinical symptoms similar to vesicular disease were found in sentinel animals, but both foot-and-mouth disease and vesicular disease were negative As a precaution, all animals in the nine farms have been killed and sentinel animals will be reintroduced All of the nine farms with a radius of 3 km were examined, but no blisters were found The serological investigation has come to an end and will be completed in January 2002 So far, 11952 sheep / goat serum and 44369 bovine serum samples have been tested All animals will be inspected head by head, and the poisonous animals will be sent to the slaughterhouse for slaughter instead of being approved for international trade The products produced by the above farms are only available for sale in Rio Grande do Sul The migration of susceptible animals within 25 kilometers of the outbreak radius of FMD is still restricted.