تأثير استيراد الحيوانات المجترة على وبائية مرضى الحمى القلاعية خلال موسم حج 1433هـ

Abstract

Millions of live ruminants are imported annually for slaughter in Saudi Arabia. The majority of these animals are imported shortly before the pilgrimage season from Sudan and horn of Africa, where Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is known to be enzootic. The current work intended to investigate the impact of importation of these live ruminants on the epizootiology of FMD in Saudi Arabia. A total of 480 sheep and 233 cattle from the sacrifice livestock yards of the Saudi project for utilization of Scarified animals’ meat in the Holy city of Makkah were investigated during the Pilgrimage season 1433 H (24-29 October, 2012). Investigated sheep were showing no apparent clinical evidence of FMD and included 260 from Sawakani breed (imported from Sudan) and 220 from Barbari breed (imported from horn of Africa) that were randomly selected from different houses of the yard. On the other hand, all investigated cattle were of African origin and included 58 cattle with suspected clinical evidence of FMD and 175 cattle without apparent symptoms that were selected from the contact animals of the suspected ones. Blood samples were collected from all investigated animals and separated sera were used for serological testing for FMD virus-specific antibodies using indirect enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (3ABC FMD ELISA). The results revealed an over all of 136 (28.3%) animals out of the 480 tested sheep were serologically positive for FMD. This included 17.7% among Sawakani sheep and 40.9% among Barbari ones. In cattle, 120 (51.5%) out of 233 investigated animals were positive for FMD virus antibodies. The 120 serologically positive cattle included all suspected cattle with apparent clinical symptoms and 62 (35.4%) of symptoms free-contact cattle. In conclusion, the findings of the current study denote the imminent risk of the annual importation of live ruminants from enzootic areas shortly before the Pilgrimage seasons. The risk involves the introduction of new exotic FMDV serotypes especially with the imported carrier or subclinically-infected animals. Understanding of the epidemiology of different strains and ability to track their move between geographic regions is essential for the development of efficient control strategies for the disease. Therefore, genotyping of isolated FMDV strains from imported and local animals is highly recommended and currently ongoing.