First incursion and evolution of foot and mouth disease during 2018-2019 outbreaks in Ghardaia district, Algeria

Abstract

FMD was notified in 1999 following the appearance of several outbreaks in Algeria. Since then, Algeria has regularly vaccinated cattle, but this did not prevent the reintroduction of the disease in 1014. Since then, outbreaks have been regularly declared across the country. Our study looks at the occurrence of outbreaks in the district of Ghardaïa during the period August 2018 to April 2019 where symptoms were observed in cattle and small ruminants. The aim of this work is to study the factors that condition the survival of FMDV such as season, average temperature, relative humidity or type of farming. Our results show that, the greatest number of outbreaks was notified between December and February. Number of outbreaks was more observed during the winter, when average temperatures recorded vary between 12°C and 14°C because low temperatures allow the survival of the virus in aerosol at 20°C. The results show also that the high number of outbreaks was observed at relative humidity (RH) levels around 54%. The intensive mode leads to an increase in contagiousness and consequently to the explosion of outbreaks expressed by a rate of 91.5%. Regarding the mortality rates, the results obtained showed that no mortality (0%) was observed in cattle, while it has been registered in sheep with a rate of 58.3% and 22.6% in goats. Concerning vaccination, cattle and small ruminants were vaccinated while sheep and goat were never vaccinated against FMD in the past.

Keywords

• fmd outbreaks
• ghardaïa
• cattle and small ruminants
• clinical signs
• vaccination.