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New U.S. made Foot-and-Mouth test fast & more precise

U.S. animal disease scientists say they now have access to a new and more precise Foot-and-Mouth Disease test.  Roxann Motroni with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security tells Brownfield the new U.S. manufactured test kit for FMD identifies the presence or absence of a specific protein.  “If an animal has been vaccinated they will actually not have a protein that they would have if they were actually infected, so they would test negative for a certain type of protein.”

Motroni says the test shows results in three hours and removes doubt because it determines if an animal has the disease, even if it was vaccinated.  “The vaccine does not contain that protein whereas the whole virus from an infection does contain that protein.”

She says that will prevent the unnecessary slaughter of animals that otherwise would have tested positive after vaccination, whether they had the disease or not.

The same test kit can be used on cattle, pigs, and small ruminant animals.

The new FMD test took more than seven years to develop, and will be commercially licensed worldwide, but only available in the U.S. to USDA’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center scientists.

VMRD Inc. (Veterinary Medical Research and Development) in Pullman, Washington is the commercial partner manufacturing the new FMD test.  They also manufacture other diagnostic kits for the USDA. The test was developed by scientists at the USDA, Department of Homeland Security, the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases in College Station, Texas, and Texas A&M University.