GFRA-EuFMD Regional meeting: FMDV in America
The control of foot-and-mouth disease in America from risk analysis to vaccine banks

​

 

The GFRA-EuFMD Regional meeting for The Americas was held on Wednesday, 10 March 2021. 
Our vision is to globally share the experience of the Americas´ FMD research community.

​

The main aim of the meeting was to discuss epidemiological surveillance in our current regional situations, focusing on how the different vaccine and antigen banks are designed and can be used to ensure FMD free status in our continent.
This virtual meeting bought together regional experts in the field who presentred 15 minute talks mostly highlighting the current status and progress on FMD surveillance and regional vaccine banks. Our goal is to learn the science behind risk analysis and the applicability of this knowledge towards the current design and possible needs of FMD vaccines banks for The Americas. We are particularly interested in bridging the basic scientific and applied knowledge required for optimal design, manufacture and stockpiling of vaccines for use in the field. The meeting was bilingual, Spanish-English.
 
There were two main sessions, one on Epidemiology, moderated by Guido Konig, Melissa McLaws  and Pamela Hullinger (EuFMD). Speakers were Andrés Pérez (UNM) and Manuel SánchezVázquez (Panaftosa). The second session was on the American Vaccine Banks, moderated by Mariano Pérez-Filgueira, Hernando Duque, and Kees van Maanen. Speakers were Alejandro M Rivera (Panaftosa), Jamie L Barnabei (Aphis-USDA) and Ana Taffarel (SENASA). 
Both sessions included a general discussion at the end.