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FMD products
FAZD Center creates products to reduce the risk of FMD (foot and mouth disease) outbreak in the U.S.
As a Department of Homeland Security National Center of Excellence, the FAZD Center brings together biological systems (such as diagnostics and vaccines), information and analysis systems, and education/outreach systems to provide full spectrum coverage of the research and education needs and contributions for foreign animal and zoonotic disease defense.
The FAZD Center is monitoring events in the United Kingdom, where animal health officials are working to contain an outbreak of FMD (foot and mouth disease). The center’s recent contributions to providing a U.S. defense against FMD include:- Validating a real time PCR diagnostic test for FMD that may be used in regional labs to produce results in 45 minutes rather than in three days at an off-shore facility.
- Developing a simple, hand held field test for FMD that will allow accurate, rapid detection on site.
- Creating analytical models to assist decision makers in assessing the consequences of planning, response, and recovery from FMD outbreaks.
- Training early responders to identify and control a wide range of emerging animal diseases, including FMD, with workshops, handbooks, CDs and a web-based curriculum.
- Designing innovative biological responses to FMD that narrow the gap between vaccination and immunity from the standard 7-10 days to fewer than three days.
- Evaluating the nation’s vulnerability to FMD, and the consequences of an outbreak, from both the epidemiologic and economic perspectives.
- Conducting mass mortality workshops in Texas and California to better prepare livestock industry stakeholders to respond to a pandemic of highly contagious animal diseases, such as FMD, that may result in death among livestock on a massive scale.
To learn more about FMD and the UK outbreak visit the FAZD Center’s FMD web portal: http://fazd.tamu.edu/fmdwebportal