Prevalence of Foot and Mouth Disease in Cattle and Buffaloes in Central Punjab, Pakistan

An epidemiological investigation conducted in 25 randomly selected villages of the six districts of central Punjab which reported foot and mouth disease. 100 swab samples from buffaloes and cattle were subjected to CFT and then ELISA which determined that FMD serotype “O” was the most prevalent type of antibodies with 67.11%. This was followed by serotype-A with 50.15% and serotype Asia-1 with 39.31%. Statistically significant differences were detected among districts for prevalence of serotypes of FMD. Highest prevalence of FMD serotypes (A, O, Asia-1) were observed in Okara followed by Faisalabad, Multan, Pakpattan, Sahiwal and Khanewal. The high positivity of larger ruminants against FMD serotypes might be due to infectious process or the outbreak wave that comes every year. The effect of the infectious process led to the high production of antibodies in the cattle and buffaloes in the selected districts of Central Punjab. However the role of weekly and monthly livestock markets held every month in Okara and Sahiwal and livestock movements due to sedentary lifestyle of the people and at the eve of Eid ul Azha needs further investigation. Concurrent infections due to all the three serotypes have been confirmed. This suggests to exploring the use of multi-variant vaccine policy for effective control of FMD in the given situation.