Published Date: 2023-05-09 13:26:59 BST
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Foot & mouth disease - Iraq (08): (DQ) livestock, spread, bov eph fever susp, RFI
Archive Number: 20230509.8709939
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE - IRAQ (08): (DHI QAR) LIVESTOCK, SPREAD, BOVINE EPHEMERAL FEVER SUSPECTED, REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
A ProMED-mail post http://www.promedmail.org
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Date: Sat 6 May 2023
Source: Shafaq News (Iraq) [in Arabic, trans., abridged, edited]
https://tinyurl.com/ydm2zuzd
The director of the Chibayish Organization for Tourism and Environment, Raad Al-Asadi, told Shafaq News agency, "About 500 buffaloes in the Chibayish district, in the far south of Dhi Qar governorate, were infected with foot-and-mouth disease [FMD] as a result of the poor environmental conditions in the marshlands." He indicated that "these infections were recorded during the past month, and at the beginning May 2023."
In turn, the administration of the veterinary hospital in Dhi Qar governorate said that the follow-up teams have already detected the presence of FMD, and there is another disease, the triple fever disease [most likely, three-day sickness or bovine ephemeral fever].
The director of the veterinary hospital, Muhammad Aziz, told Shafaq News Agency that the disease "takes 3 days for its passage inside the buffalo's body, with the use of some simple medicines."
He implied that "there is a foot-and-mouth disease called (SAT) that entered the country by importing animals from Jordan; there is no vaccine against this [strain] at the present time, and Iraq is in the process of announcing a tender to purchase the matching vaccine."
Aziz added that "samples will be withdrawn from buffalo animals in Chibayish and sent to the laboratory tomorrow for the purpose of indicating the type of disease affecting these animals."
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ProMED
[The above and similar information in additional Iraqi media sources (e.g., RT Online at https://tinyurl.com/bdzhmcth) is somewhat blurred. It may be deduced that both FMD SAT 2 and bovine ephemeral fever viruses are currently affecting the water buffalo population in southern Iraq, prescribing early laboratory-supported diagnosis and appropriate control measures, including vaccination. The continued unavailability of FMDV SAT2 vaccine, in spite of the virus circulating throughout Iraq since January 2023, is cause for concern, nationally and regionally.
Iraqi allegations of the virus introduced from Jordan by exported livestock have been denied by Jordan's Ministry of Agriculture (Al Wakeel News, 8 May 2023 at https://tinyurl.com/kj7t73fv). The actual routes of FMDV SAT2 introduction into Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey since January 2023 are yet to be analysed, taking into consideration international trade data, chronology, and genotyping results.
According to a genotyping report prepared by the world reference laboratory for FMD (Pirbright, UK) on behalf of the Şap Enstitusu (Ankara, Turkey) and Veterinary Authorities in Iraq, which covers a VP1 sequence submitted to the WRLFMD on 2 Feb 2023, the Iraqi FMDV strain from Nineveh is closely (98%) related to a 2022 Ethiopian strain of serotype SAT2, topotype XIV. The report, including a dendogram, is available at https://www.wrlfmd.org/sites/world/files/quick_media/WRLMEG-2023-00004-IRQ-GTR-O-SAT2_001.pdf. - Mod.AS
ProMED map:
Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq: https://promedmail.org/promed-post?place=8709939,6626]