A novel lineage of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) can have severe socio-economic impacts in Asia.
Researchers at the FAO World Reference Laboratory for FMD (WRLFMD), based at The Pirbright Institute, have tracked an emerging FMDV lineage in the Middle East.
Writing in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution, the researchers summarise the global distribution of the FMDV lineage named O/ME-SA/SA-2018.
Through collaboration with regional laboratories in Nepal, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates, the paper shows how commercially available serotype O vaccines are likely to protect against field outbreaks and presented a novel real-time diagnostic test that allows for rapid identification of the lineage.
Dr Don King writes: “We reconstructed the evolutionary history of the lineage, revealing its shared ancestry with other viruses from South Asia and highlighting its potential to spread more widely in the Middle East and to more distant locations.”
“The findings reinforce the importance of active FMD surveillance and the work of FMD Reference Laboratories [https://www.foot-and-mouth.org/woahfao-fmd-reference-laboratory-network] to collect and characterise FMDVs from ongoing outbreaks so that newly emerging lineages can be readily detected and monitored.”
The authors hope their findings will raise awareness amongst regional veterinary authorities and diagnostic laboratories that the O/ME-SA/SA-2018 lineage is emerging and provide laboratories with an assay for rapid detection.
This work is part of a PhD project with the University of Surrey that aims to identify signatures of panzootic FMDV lineages that underpin their ability to replace circulating strains and spread beyond usual geographical distribution.
Read the paper
Edwards, E., Shaw, A.E., Di Nardo, A. et al. (2025) Foot-and-mouth disease virus O/ME-SA/SA-2018: A new emerging threat posed by viruses circulating in Asia? Infection, Genetics and Evolution 132
