Foot & mouth disease, porcine - Taiwan

FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE, PORCINE - TAIWAN (05): (HSINCHU)
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International Society for Infectious Diseases http://www.isid.org

Date: Tue 21 Jul 2009
Source: Taiwan News, Central News Agency (CNA) report [edited]
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1009198&lang=eng_news&cate_img=logo_taiwan&cate_rss=TAIWAN_eng

Foot-and-mouth disease confirmed in Hsinchu County
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Taiwan's animal quarantine authorities reported Tuesday [21 Jul 2009] the country's latest confirmed case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), involving a pen of hogs at a meat market in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan. On 13 Jul 2009, 8 of the 9 hogs in the pen were discovered to have blisters -- a symptom typical of FMD. The animals were immediately destroyed.

According to officials at the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), tests on specimens taken from the hogs confirmed that they had been infected with serotype O of the FMD virus.

As the hogs had been enclosed overnight in the meat market, it was likely that the hogs were infected in the facility, according to the officials [see comment below]. The market was disinfected soon after the discovery of FMD, and further disinfection efforts will be carried out in the coming days when the market is not open for business, they said.

They added that quarantine officials had already inspected the farm where the hogs were raised but no abnormalities were discovered there. The BAPHIQ, however, has restricted the movement of livestock within the farm and has collected specimens for further tests, the officials went on.

Sporadic FMD cases have been reported on pig farms in several parts of the country since the start of this year [2009].

The cases have come just as Taiwan, which experienced a serious FMD outbreak in 1997, has been working toward the goal of being listed as a fully FMD-free country after having been recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) as an "FMD-free country with vaccination" thanks to its efforts to eliminate the disease over the past decade.

[Byline: YF Low]

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Communicated by: ProMED-mail Rapporteur Susan Baekeland

[If the hogs were found with blisters following a one-night stay in the facility, it is rather difficult to believe they were infected there; in pigs, the incubation period of FMD is usually 2 days or more, though it can be as short as 18-24 hours.

A map, showing the location of the affected livestock market in the northeast, is included in "Chinese Taipei" immediate notification to the OIE on the current outbreak, submitted on 20 Jul 2009. The notification is available at<http://www.oie.int/wahis/public.php?page=single_report&pop=1&reportid=8293>.

The epidemiological comments in the notification include, among others, the following information: "The prefecture animal disease control competent authority traced back to the farms of origin. The clinical investigation showed that all pigs on farms were healthy. Samples from the farms of origin were collected for serological tests and virus isolation. The movement control of all pigs on farms of origin was implemented. The serological test and virus detection of the farms of origin are under way. This outbreak may originate from the index livestock market."

In case the farms of origin had been vaccinated, clinical disease there could be absent, vaccination masking subclinical infection.

Notably, in order to ensure the eradication of FMD virus, Chinese Taipei uses non-vaccinated pigs as sentinel animals on every farm.

Final results of the laboratory tests are thus anticipated with interest. -Mod.AS]

[Hsinchu County can be located on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map at http://healthmap.org/r/00C5 - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]