Nepal – a first class education into every facet of FMD
Several NABS SDI Network vets participated in Foot and Mouth Disease training in Nepal between 2017 and 2019 to help build understanding of the disease and Australia’s capacity to respond effectively. Here’s some of what was seen and done.
Bryce says (2018)
“One single outbreak of FMD in Australia has the ability to cripple our livestock industry and close trade with all international markets in as little as 7 days”.
Activities over the five days included:
- Clinically diagnosing FMD in cattle, goats and pigs
- Working under a full quarantine protocol
- Sending samples to the lab in Kathmandu
- Using epidemiological principles to trace the infection
- Talking disease control with the Nepalese farmers.
Peter’s pics (2018)
John’s report (2018)
The training has been “an invaluable experience learning and understanding the disease”.
“In April 2018 I was lucky enough to participate in KTC28 run by the European Commission for Foot and Mouth Disease. The Real-time FMD training located in Kathmandu, Nepal; was attended by a like-minded group of government vets, private vets, pathologists, producers, and agents. We visited 2 dairy farms and a piggery affected by FMD. It was hands on ageing lesions and taking samples to confirm the diagnosis and serotype. Epidemiologically it was interesting to find that veterinary technicians travelling from farm to farm to vaccinate for FMD were (ironically) the biggest risk for transmission. This exemplified the importance of biosecurity.”