Dr Gleeson has returned to CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) after spending four years in Thailand working as regional coordinator of the South East Asia FMD control program, run by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) - the world organisation for animal health.
“FMD appeared this year in the highlands of northern Laos, which is highly unusual. The pan-Asian strain seems to be very well adapted to pigs and cattle, and it has a capability to get around. This particular strain is now in every country of South East Asia that has FMD,” says Dr Gleeson.
“The outbreak of FMD in the UK and the spread of a new strain of FMD throughout South East Asia in recent times has put us on high alert.”
The news comes as the Australian Animal Health Laboratory gears up its preparedness to deal with a potential outbreak of the dreaded livestock disease. AAHL is in the process of obtaining extra FMD test reagents, automating equipment, and training extra staff at the laboratory and at State diagnostic laboratories.
“We realise that if the worst happens and there is an outbreak of FMD in Australia, we must be prepared to deal with a high volume of samples. We will need to be able to test samples from the outbreak area, and also from areas free from the disease, so they can resume trading as quickly as possible.”
“Our capability to quickly and accurately diagnose the first case of FMD has been high, but we recognised in the wake of the UK outbreak that we could do more to prepare for a long running outbreak of the disease,” he says.
The training program and reagent purchase were made possible by the injection to AAHL of an additional $500,000 from the Federal Government.
Dr Gleeson says the laboratory is also involved with international collaborators to develop a better diagnostic test for FMD, which would allow scientists to detect animals infected with the virus, even if they have been vaccinated.
“The fact that current internationally accepted tests do not allow us to differentiate between vaccinated and infected animals is a major impediment to the use of vaccines in an outbreak situation. A meeting of major collaborators on the project will be held at AAHL in Geelong in March,” he says.
As coordinator of the OIE program, Laurie’s role was to develop an understanding of FMD activities that are being conducted across Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and to develop a regional FMD control strategy.
“I was working with people in animal health agencies, assisting them to develop national control programs,” Laurie says.
“We helped each nation to harmonise their approach to FMD control across the region. My office was especially concerned with strengthening disease surveillance, control of animal movements, communication and public awareness.
“FMD is tremendously difficult to control, so we need to do everything possible to prevent FMD entering and spreading in Australia,” he says.
Dr Gleeson said that South East Asia control program faced a special set of challenges.
“In many countries, there are almost as many livestock owners as there are livestock, which poses huge problems for communications on disease risks. There is also a lack of fencing and animal identification compared to Australia.
“Australia would face its own challenges, stemming from the immense geographic size of the nation’s livestock rearing areas,” he says.
Dr Gleeson first joined CSIRO in 1986, and spent three years from 1987 to 1990 in Thailand working on the first CSIRO/ACIAR FMD project. Since his return to AAHL earlier this year, Dr Gleeson has rejoined the Diagnosis and Epidemiology team, and will focus on the portfolio of FMD-related projects.
FMD is a highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals, such as pigs, cattle, sheep, goats and deer. The disease is spread rapidly via contact with animals, transmission via people or transport vehicles, or through the air.
Although FMD is rarely fatal in adult animals it can lead to deaths in young animals such as piglets and calves. The disease causes severe production losses and is a major constraint to international trade in livestock and livestock products.