Three cases of foot-and-mouth disease were detected on a water buffalo farm in Germany, leading to the preventive slaughter of the herd of 14 animals. Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious, with potentially significant socio-economic repercussions. However, it is not transmissible to humans and poses no risk to public health.

Following the detection of these cases, the ANSES Laboratory for Animal Health, as the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for this disease, was contacted by the German National Reference Laboratory (NRL) to confirm the contamination.

Under this EURL mandate, whose tasks include guaranteeing the reliability of the tests carried out by all the approved laboratories in the network it leads, the Laboratory for Animal Health analysed the samples taken from the infected buffalo. This confirmed the infection and the identity of the viral strain. The ANSES laboratory also distributed the real-time RT-PCR protocol it had developed to the German NRL and the other European laboratories in its network.

At the same time, the Laboratory for Animal Health is conducting vaccine concordance tests to determine the efficacy of the vaccines currently available against the viral strain detected in Germany. Although preventive vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease has been banned in Europe since 1991, it can be considered on a specific basis, for example to curb the spread of disease.

Increased surveillance to prevent the spread of the disease, particularly in France

To prevent the possible spread of foot-and-mouth disease, certain countries – such as the United Kingdom, South Korea and Mexico – have taken steps to ban imports of meat from Germany. This is not the case for France. However, increased surveillance is in place across Europe to prevent the spread of the virus. In France, for example, the Laboratory for Animal Health, in conjunction with the Directorate General for Food (DGAL), carried out a campaign of serological testing on pigs imported from Germany in December to ensure that there were no cases of contamination. Although the risk of spread is considered "high", according to Labib Bakkali Kassimi, a virologist and head of the EURL for foot-and-mouth disease, "it is unlikely that contamination will be detected in specimens imported into France, since the incubation period for the virus varies between two and 14 days, and we are now beyond that period."

Moreover, the EURL is in contact with all the NRLs in Europe, and has provided them with the real-time RT-PCR protocol it developed to enable them to remove any doubts about suspected cases.

Developing new methods and procedures for diagnosing foot-and-mouth disease

Although these cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany are the first detected in the European Union since 2011, the ANSES Laboratory for Animal Health works routinely to put in place new, ever more effective resources to support the diagnostic process in the event of new outbreaks of the disease.

As an example, the Laboratory recently developed a new protocol to simplify the dispatch of samples of contaminated specimens, reducing both costs and the biological risks associated with transport. It is also currently working on a new diagnostic method for the disease to save time in the diagnostic process, which currently requires laboratory analysis.

The Laboratory for Animal Health's reference mandates for foot-and-mouth disease:

• National Reference Laboratory (NRL) since 2009
• World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Reference Laboratory since 2015
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Reference Centre since 2018 
• European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) since 2019