Serological evidence of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in camels (Camelus dromedaries) in Nigeria

Foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD) is one of the most important trans-boundary animal diseases in Africa with outbreaks occurring mostly in cattle. However, there is scarcity of information on the potential role of camels in the epidemiology of FMD virus in West Africa. A total of 360 camel sera collected from abattoir  in Nigeria from different geo-political zones (North, West and East) were screened for the presence of antibodies produced against 3ABC non-structural proteins (NSP) for foot-mouth-disease virus (FMDV) using a commercially available kit prioCHECK® FMDV NS. Thirty nine, (10.83%) out of the 360 sera samples were tested positive for 3ABC NSP ELISA. The 39 positive samples were further subjected for sero-typing using solid-phase competitive ELISA (SPCE) for antibodies to FMDV serotype A and O (Solid-Phase Competitive ELISA, IZSLER Brescia-Italy).  Two out of the 39 sera samples were positive for serotype A and the remaining were negative for both serotype A and O. This appears to be the first report of evidence of FMD antibodies in dromedaries in West Africa and that dromedaries may be susceptible to FMDV infection.   Key words: 3ABC; camel, ELISA, foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD), non-structural proteins (NSP), sera.