National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) is a flagship scheme launched by Hon'ble Prime Minister in September, 2019 for control of FMD and Brucellosis by vaccinating 100% cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig population for FMD and 100% bovine female calves of 4-8 months of age for brucellosis.The main objective of the NADCP is to control FMD by 2025 with vaccination and its eventual eradication by 2030. NADCP for FMD and Brucellosis is a Central Sector Scheme where 100% of funds is provided by the Central Government to the States/UTs. ICAR-NIFMD technicallyand logistically supports FMD Control programme under NADCPby in-house production and supply ofdiagnostic kits for FMD virus diagnosis, seromonitoring and serosurveillance.In addition, under this programme, ICAR-NIFMD has joined hands with ICAR-IVRI and CCS National Institute of Animal Health, Baghpat for the quality control testing of FMD vaccine batches for safety, sterility, purity and potencyas per the standard operative procedure laid down by DAHD.
The institute undertakes FMD seromonitoring testing using Solid Phase Competitive ELISA (SPCE) to measure anti-FMDVstructural antibody titre.A new postvaccination seromonitoring sampling strategy was developed by ICAR-NIFMD in collaboration with ICAR-NIVEDI which has been followed under NADCP for seromonitoring. Under new sampling scheme, meta-data related to age of the animal, species, sex, location are being collected. The age stratified samples are collected form three different age groups of animals viz 6-12 months, 13-24 months and >24 months at a ratio of 5:4:1 as per OIE guidelines. About 1,50,000 pre and post vaccination samples are tested in every round of vaccination.
In India, vaccination with inactivated vaccine is the mainstay of FMD control. There is a challenge to identify the infected animals among the vaccinated ones for appropriate implementation of the control programme. Differentiation of these two categories of animals is important during serological surveys to detect evidence of infection. During active viral replication following FMD virus infection, arrays of nonstructural proteins (NSPs) are produced that elicit anti-NSP antibodies, which is not the case in animals which are vaccinated against FMD with inactivated virus vaccine. Use of DIVA assay is essential in identification of potential disease-free zones (DFZs) with vaccination in India. A new sampling design following two-stage sampling strategy was developed jointly by ICAR-NIFMD and ICAR-NIVEDI. For NSP antibody serosurveillance, the sampling design usually focuses on younger animals (6-18 months age) since repeated vaccination can generate false positive signal in NSP ELISA. For serosurveillance, 3AB3 NSP ELISA is adopted in the country and about 1,20,000 samples are screening every year to gain insight into seroprevalence of FMD.