Potential transmission of foot-and-mouth disease from pigs to cattle in a mixed animal farming

Abstract

In the present report, investigation of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in a commercial pig farm located in the outskirts of Bengaluru in February 2018 was carried out. Disease with high morbidity and severity was noticed in the pig herd consisting of 500 animals. Clinically, the animals showed marked dullness, off feeding and limping along with severe vesicular lesions and ulcers on snout and skin around the coronary bands of pigs. The outbreak was caused by FMDV type O as tested by sandwich ELISA of the samples collected from a dead piglet.Demonstration of high levels of antibodies to structural proteins specific to serotype O (as compared to two other serotypes) in the presence of high titres of non-structural antibodies in the randomly collected samples 2 weeks after the episode was suggestive of widespread infection on the farm in the absence of zoo-sanitary measures.Disease transmission in the vaccinated cattle was also evidenced as animals housed in close proximity developed the disease. Vaccination of pigs in addition to large animals is important to avoid transmission of the disease to other animals as pigs may serve as source of active infection as observed in the present outbreak.