A review of foot-and-mouth disease status and control measures in Botswana.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), an economically important disease of livestock, is endemic in Botswana. The country has been affected by this disease since the early 1930s, and FMD virus (FMDV) continues to circulate in both domestic and wild animal populations. Botswana is affected by the Southern African Territories (SAT1-3) of FMDV. Up to 80% of the income in the agricultural sector in Botswana is derived from the beef production, and about 70% of Botswana's beef exports go to the European Union (EU) market. Thus, trade restrictions caused by FMD outbreaks may result in declines in revenue. In this review, the FMD status of Botswana from 2006 to 2022 is discussed. During the report period, SAT2 was responsible for 80 out of a total of 87 FMD outbreaks, while SAT1 was responsible for 7 out of 87 outbreaks. These outbreaks were a result of SAT1 topotype I and SAT2 topotypes I, II, and III. There were no outbreaks associated with serotype SAT3 over the review span, suggesting absence of this serotype in the country, although it is still maintained in vaccines formulated for use in Botswana. Most of the outbreaks reported in this review occurred in the North West district of Botswana; an area that is heavily populated with cloven hooved wildlife. This highlights the role of wildlife-domestic animal interaction in FMD spread and maintenance. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has created a progressive control pathway for FMD (PCP-FMD) for the global elimination of FMD to reduce FMD-related losses. This review highlights how Botswana takes part in the PCP-FMD by putting in place control measures such as surveillance and vaccination. The review also touches on the disease control challenges such as limitations to separation of livestock with populations of buffaloes and lapses in livestock vaccination which contribute to maintenance of FMDV circulation in Botswana.

Assessment of the sensitivity of primary cells and cell lines to the Southern African Territories (SAT) serotypes in the diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease virus.

Virus isolation is the gold standard for foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) detection in diagnostic procedures. This technique is heavily reliant on the use of sensitive cells for rapid and accurate detection of FMDV. To investigate the sensitivity of RM (primary lamb kidney cells), BHK-21 (baby hamster kidney cells) and IR-P1 (a derivative of female pig kidney cells) to infection with FMDV of the Southern African Territories (SAT) serotypes, we examined the virus concentration required to induce cytopathic effect (CPE) on each cell type. The results suggested that sensitivity of RM and IR-P1 cells was high and not significantly different (P < 0.05). BHK-21 however, exhibited low sensitivity to the strains used. Comparisons of three batches of each cell type were also done to establish the consistency of the sensitivity of these cells to FMDV infection. IR-P1 and BHK-21 cell batches gave consistent results for all samples used whereas RM cells showed significant differences (P > 0.05) between batches. TCID 50/ml was used to determine the viral titre required to induce CPE. IR-P1 cell line proved to have consistently higher TCID50/mL for all cell batches while RM cell batches displayed a difference in TCID50/mL values. The IR-P1 cell line was concluded to be a good cell culture system for virus isolation as it showed relatively high and reproducible sensitivity to all the FMDV strains used. The findings of this study indicate that the use of IR-P1 cell line could be considered for FMDV diagnostic work.