Cairo - Each time a new foot-and-mouth virus strain appears, the authorities wait for the creation of a vaccine when the strain has been isolated. In the meantime, there is no protection for the potential victims. The problem is that the research centres are not adequately prepared, considering that these new virus strains usually appear first in the countries that export meat to Egypt. The problem could also relate to the authorities monitoring imported cattle. There has not been a problem with the foot-and-mouth disease for many years; the previous strains were identified and isolated. A new strain has already led to a huge number of deaths and presents a grave danger. There is no other option but to wait for the new vaccine, which will take some weeks. “People are actually afraid that a new vaccine could be useless,” said Moustafa Bastami, the former dean of the Veterinary Faculty at Cairo University. He added that vaccination should be postponed. According to Bastami, creating a new vaccine isn't difficult. There would only be a problem, if the virus mutated and was immune to existing vaccines or new ones along the same lines. “There is an urgent need to catch a virus before it changes. Maps are required that show all teams working on a pandemic, so future plans can be devised,” Bastami explained. Mohamed Tammam, the head of the virus department at the Veterinary Faculty of Beni Suef University, said the difficulty with the foot-and-mouth disease was to isolate a new strain. Once identified it was easy to produce a vaccine, but it would take at least a month. The vaccine would be prepared in a laboratory and then extensively tested. As for the foot-and-mouth disease affecting local calves, Tammam noted that most probably the virus entered via frozen imported meat. The foot- and-mouth disease is spreading rapidly in Ethiopia and South Africa and transmitted via physical touch amongst people dealing with consignments or through mixing infected calves with healthy ones. Baby animals are particularly at risk; their heart muscles are affected if infected, but they don't show any symptoms. When animals show clear signs of infection, they need to be immediately culled. Otherwise, if the disease has not spread through the whole body, an animal can be slaughtered and its head, bones, pharynx and oesophagus destroyed, as the virus can be dormant for 76 days. The best solution is to manufacture vaccines locally and track the development of the virus every a couple of years, Tammam suggested and added that vaccines were available for the strains O and A. There were other strains known as Sat 1, Sat 2, Sat 3, for whom there were no vaccines yet. The former head of the Veterinary Association, Ahmed Farahat, stressed that animals in Egypt were vaccinated against the foot-and-mouth disease. But since the virus constantly adapted and changed, a new vaccine for Sat 3 was now being created.
