The foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in The Netherlands in 2001

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Abstract

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Great Britain was reported on 21 February 2001, followed by an outbreak of FMD in The Netherlands a month later. This Dutch index outbreak occurred on a mixed, veal-calf/dairy-goat farm in Oene, in the central part of The Netherlands. The most-likely route of infection was the import of Irish veal-calves to this Dutch herd via an FMD-contaminated staging point in France. With hindsight, more herds seemed to be infected by the time the index outbreak was confirmed. The regular EU control measures were implemented, in combination with pre-emptive culling of herds within 1 km of each outbreak. Nevertheless, more outbreaks of FMD occurred. Most of the virus infections on those farms were “neighborhood infections”. Because the situation seemed out of control locally and the destruction capacity became insufficient, it was decided to implement an emergency vaccination strategy for all biungulates in a large area around Oene to stop further spread of the virus. All susceptible animals on approximately 1800 farms in this area were vaccinated. All farms subsequently were depopulated, starting from 2 weeks after vaccination. In total, 26 outbreaks were detected (the last outbreak on 22 April 2001). In total, approximately 260,000 animals were killed.

Introduction

The Netherlands was free from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) since 1984. Unfortunately, in February 2001, an outbreak of FMD was detected in a slaughterhouse in Great Britain (GB); this was the start of a huge epidemic in the UK and led to introductions of the disease in other countries of the EU: France, Ireland and The Netherlands. Immediately after the report of the first FMD outbreak in GB on 21 February, animal transports from GB into The Netherlands were halted. Moreover, livestock markets were prohibited and only one-to-one transport of susceptible animals within The Netherlands was allowed (i.e. transport from one farm to one other followed by cleaning and disinfection). Moreover, FMDV-susceptible animals imported from GB and France since 24 January 2001, were traced and inspected clinically, and all sheep and goats imported since 1 February 2001 from those two countries were killed and destroyed. No FMD was detected.

Despite these preventive measures, a suspicion of FMD in The Netherlands was reported on 15 March 2001. Many goats on a mixed dairy-goat/veal-calf farm in Oene (Veluwe, Gelderland) showed signs of FMD. Samples were sent to the FMDV laboratory in Lelystad (the National Reference Laboratory for FMD in The Netherlands) for official diagnosis. While the laboratory diagnosis was being done, a second FMD suspicion was reported on a dairy farm approximately 5 km from the index case. On 21 March 2001, FMD virus type O was detected in samples from this dairy farm, and The Netherlands was confronted with the first official outbreak of FMD in 2001. The first suspicion in Oene was confirmed 1 day later. This was the start of the FMD epidemic in The Netherlands, which caused infection of animals in 26 herds (official FMD cases), and the culling and destruction of approximately 260,000 animals on 2763 herds.

In this paper, we describe epidemiological features of the FMD epidemic 2001 in The Netherlands. We discuss the control measures that were implemented, and present a preliminary quantitative analysis of the evolution of the epidemic and the effectiveness of the control measures.

Section snippets

FMDV introduction into The Netherlands in 2001

The Netherlands had been officially free of FMD since 1984. Because the EU is an open market, no measures were taken to prevent the introduction of FMD virus from other EU countries. After the report of the first FMD outbreak in the UK, the National Inspection Service of Livestock and Meat (RVV) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries (LNV) traced all registered susceptible animals (sheep, goats, pigs, and deer) imported from the UK and France since 24 January 2001. All

Cases

The index case was thought to be the mixed veal-calf/dairy-goat farm in Oene (March 2001), although it was not the first officially diagnosed farm. The interval between the assumed virus introduction and detection of the index case was 3 weeks. More outbreaks occurred in the following weeks.

In Fig. 1, the distribution of the number of suspected and confirmed FMD outbreaks through time is shown. As can be seen, the number of suspected herds increased dramatically after report of the first

Concluding remarks

The first measures taken after the first FMD outbreak in the UK were a stand still and prohibition of live stock markets and import of animals from the UK. Nevertheless, the virus was introduced in The Netherlands on 24 February 2001 by the import of veal-calves from Ireland via an FMD-contaminated staging point in France. At the time of detection of the index case, probably 6–10 herds already were infected. The estimated Rh was 2.6. The addition of other measures (depopulation of infected

Acknowledgements

The authors thank everyone who was involved in the control of the FMD epidemic—especially the RVV tracing team members Mark Ekker, Hans Nieuwenhuis, Lammert Moll and Geert Benedictus.

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