Smart farming technologies provide the farmers with their animal location and health status in real time. Equipped with these technologies, farmers can take immediate actions to improve the health and welfare of their herd and of every individual animal. The use of smart farming technologies provide a valuable time optimization in detecting and managing disease outbreaks. A connected global system to live track animals, allow secure localization and early detection. Once the time gap is closed, we advance towards transmissible diseases eradication.

Vaccination is an important measure for prophylactic control of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in endemic countries. One of the main factors for successful disease control is to select the most suitable vaccine strain, which will protect against currently circulating viruses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy in pigs by vaccination of commercially available FMD vaccines against heterologous challenge with A/Asia/G-VII lineage viruses, which have exhibited insufficient cross-protection.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) O/CATHAY lineage virus is a known porcinophilic virus that has caused devastating damage to the pig industry. In vaccine matching and efficacy results by other FMD reference laboratories, there have been concerns that many commercially available vaccine could not confer effective protective immunity against O/CATHAY lineage viruses. In this study, we conducted the in vivo efficacy tests to find the applicable regimen for three commercial vaccines (O1/Manisa+O/3630, O1/Campos, and O/Primorsky/2014) and one experimental vaccine (O/Boeun/SKR/2017, O/ME-SA/Ind-2001e lineage) to confer the protective immunity against heterologous challenge with the O/CATHAY field virus, O/VN/30/17, in pigs.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) remains endemic in East-Southeast Asia, Middle East and North Africa causing significant economic losses; multiple variants of serotypes FMDV O and A are currently circulating. FMD vaccines from Argentina, are widely used in South America and in some countries in Asia and they have shown excellent efficacy in controlling FMD in these regions. Here we report satisfactory in vitro and in vivo vaccine matching studies of FMD vaccines formulated with O1 Campos, A24 Cruzeiro and A2001 Argentina vaccine strains against Type O and A field viruses circulating in endemic regions.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-susceptible sheep’s play an important epidemiological role in the spread of FMD. Outbreaks in sheep due to multiple serotypes FMDV O, A, Asia 1 have been reported in endemic regions such as the Middle East and North Africa. In the present study, we assessed the onset and duration of immunity (DOI) elicited by FMD single oil emulsion polyvalent Asia1 vaccine (FMDV O, A and Asia 1) and trivalent vaccine (FMDV O, A, A) in sheep after a single dose and two doses. The booster effect and the comparison in the immune response induced by the two vaccine compositions was investigated.

We earlier isolated 10 single-domain antibodies (VHHs) that specifically bind intact (146S) FMDV particles but not the (12S) degradation products of serotype A strain A/TUR/14/98. Such 12S particles are much less immunogenic than 146S particles. As a result, the 146S particle specific VHHs are useful tools for quality control of FMDV antigens used in vaccines. Conventional monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were shown to bind at least 5 independent antigenic sites by competition ELISAs and sequencing of mutants that are resistant to neutralization by mAbs. Escape mutants of serotype A binding 146S specific mAb 9 had mutations in VP3, near the 2-fold symmetry axis where separate 12S particles join into a 146S particle. This suggests that 146S specificity is caused by the epitope lying on two adjacent 12S pentamers that is separated by 146S particle dissociation. However, cryo EM structural analysis the serotype O 146S specific VHH M170 showed that it recognizes a loop on VP3 that has a different 3D structure in the 12S particle compared to the 146S particle. This change in conformation most likely causes the 146S particle specificity. To further understand the mechanism of 146S specificity, we mapped the antigenic sites of serotype A binding VHHs by competition ELISAs, VNTs and cross-linking mass spectrometry.
By Haozhou Li

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a WOAH notifiable transboundary cattle disease caused by lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), a dsDNA virus member of the Capripoxvirus genus, belonging to the Poxviridae family. LSD primarily affects cattle, causing fever, enlarged lymph nodes, lesions of the oral mucous membranes, of the respiratory, and digestive tract, abortions and a reduction in milk production. Considering the important economic impact on livestock, innovative and effective tools to detect the virus in fields would be of the greatest interest to speed up the diagnosis. Given its feasibility in field conditions and its easiness to use, lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) could fulfil this goal. This study aimed at developing LFIA using monoclonal antibodies (mAb) produced against p32 LSDV structural protein and evaluating the preliminary specificity and sensitivity.

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a WOAH notifiable transboundary cattle disease caused by lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), a dsDNA virus member of the Capripoxvirus genus, belonging to the Poxviridae family. LSD primarily affects cattle, causing fever, enlarged lymph nodes, lesions of the oral mucous membranes, of the respiratory, and digestive tract, abortions and a reduction in milk production. Considering the important economic impact on livestock, innovative and effective tools to detect the virus in fields would be of the greatest interest to speed up the diagnosis. Given its feasibility in field conditions and its easiness to use, lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) could fulfil this goal. This study aimed at developing LFIA using monoclonal antibodies (mAb) produced against p32 LSDV structural protein and evaluating the preliminary specificity and sensitivity.

Virus Neutralization Test (VNT) and Solid Phase Competitive ELISA (SPCE) are useful tools for a wide range of in vitro investigations, focused on serology studies in livestock and wild animals. After vaccination campaigns or immunogenicity studies, related to the control of Foot-and-mouth Disease (FMD), VNT and SPCE are usually performed to detect immune response of animals and, subsequently, the effectiveness of a vaccination. VNT remains the diagnostic gold standard, but various issues are related to this assay, first and foremost the manipulation of viable viruses and the related maintenance of an acceptable biosecurity level. Together with the complexity of test, mainly due to its affecting variables, this reason had often induced to find a correlation with SPCE, in order to substitute VNT with a safer and easier assay. In this study, comparing the data collected analysing sera from vaccinated animals, we evaluated the potential correlation between the two tests, focusing on the effect of homology/heterology of the strains behind the assays and those used during vaccination.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly important disease of domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals caused by the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Among FMDV serotypes, serotype O and A are the most widely distributed serotypes in Asia and serotype Asia 1 occurs only in Asia. Rapid and accurate detection and serotyping of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is essential for implementing control policies against emergent foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks. Current serotyping assays, such as VP1 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)/Sequencing (VP1 RT-PCR/Sequencing) and antigen detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), have problems with increasing serotyping failure of FMDVs from FMD outbreaks. Digital PCR is a PCR technology where it generates a numerous reaction space and it allows to display the result values in O and 1. Even in only one well amplifies, the signal is detected. Because of this, digital PCR has highly sensitivity especially in ultra-low concentration samples. Therefore, this study was conducted to apply a digital RT-PCR for specific detection and differential serotyping of FMDV serotype O, A, and Asia 1 directly from field clinical samples.