Disease Information

13 April 2001
Vol. 14 - No. 15

FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE IN SAUDI ARABIA

See also: 14 April 2000

Emergency report

Text of a fax received on 7 April 2001 from Dr Omar A. Hashem, Director of Animal Quarantine, Ministry of Agriculture and Water, Riyadh:

Report date: 28 March 2001.

Nature of diagnosis: clinical and laboratory.

Date of initial detection of animal health incident: 18 March 2001.

Estimated date of first infection: 14 March 2001.

Outbreaks:

Location	No. of outbreaks
Eastern area	13
Middle area	15
Northern area	5
Southern area	3
Western area	10
Total	46

Total number of animals in the outbreaks:

species	susceptible	cases	deaths	destroyed	slaughtered
bov	2,793	1,891	156	30	0
ovi/cap	4,266	523	63	0	0

Diagnosis:

A. Laboratory where diagnosis was made: Diagnostic Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water, Riyadh. Further samples sent to Pirbright Laboratory, United Kingdom.

B. Diagnostic tests used: blocking ELISA⁽¹⁾.

C. Causal agent: virus type O. Subtyping is under investigation.

Epidemiology:

A. Source of agent / origin of infection: the disease is enzootic.

B. Mode of spread: movement of animals.

Control measures: quarantine and movement control inside the country; vaccination.

(1) ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

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