Foot-And-Mouth Disease and Zoonoses Control

II INTER-AMERICAN MEETING ON FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE AND ZOONOSES CONTROL PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Regional Office of the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION 1970 II INTER-AMERICAN MEETING ON FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE AND ZOONOSES CONTROL (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 14-17 May 1969) Scientific Publication No. 196 PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Regional Office of the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION 525 Twenty-Third Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037, U.S.A. 1970 CONTENTS Address by the Director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Dr. Abraham Horwitz ............................................ v Address by the Minister of Agriculture of Brazil, Dr. Ivo Arzua Pereira............................................ ix FINAL REPORT .................................................... 1 PART I. PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION OF PROGRAMS Planning in Animal Health-Otoniel Velasco ......................... 21 International Credit and Its Importance in the Campaign against Animal Diseases-José Irineu Cabral..................................... 25 Administrative Factors Affecting the Organization and Conduct of Health Campaigns-Yecid Aliaga ........................................ 29 PART II. FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE: CONTROL AND PREVENTION Planning of a Foot-and-Mouth Disease Control Program- Parisio Pineda Ayala ............................................. 41 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Campaign in Argentina: Results, Benefits, and Projections-Jorge Borsella ...................................... 58 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Campaign in Brazil: Results and Benefits- José Freire de Faria............................................. 66 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Campaign in Venezuela: Results, Benefits, and Prospects-Miguel Villegas Delgado........................... 69 Foot-and-Mouth Disease: Eradication and Preventive Measures in Canada-Kenneth F. Wells ....................................... 76 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Prevention Program in the Darién Area, Panama-Ramón A. Vega, Jr..................................... 82 Repercussions of the Occurrence of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in a Disease- Free Area-Frank J. Mulhern .................................... 90 PART III: ZOONOSES Zoonoses, Public Health, and Livestock Development in Latin America- Boris Szyfres ................................................... 99 Myiases as Zoonoses of Importance in the Americas-Robert Sharman.. 104 iii iv Contents The Status of Rabies in the Americas- Aurelio Málaga Alba and Pedro N. Acha ........................... 112 The Problem of Hydatidosis in the Americas- A. Trejos and J. F. Williams ..................................... 122 PART IV: ANIMAL NUTRITION Some Observations on Animal Feeding in the Tropics-Ricardo Bressani.. 129 Annex: List of Participants ......................................... 139 ADDRESS BY THE DIRECTOR OF THE PAN AMERICAN SANITARY BUREAU DR. ABRAHAM HORWITZ On the occasion of your meeting at the Headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization in April 1968, I said that I hoped it "would be the first of a series of regular meetings at which we would have, together with the pleasure of your company, an opportunity to discuss the advances made and their consequences, the obstacles encountered and solutions to them, in all aspects of our work in which the prolongation of human life essentially depends on agricultural and livestock production and productivity, on research, and on the university training of professional and technical personnel. In this way your wealth of experience would serve to guide us in improving the discharge of our responsibilities." Accordingly we are going to give an account of what we have done in the control of foot-and-mouth disease and certain zoonoses, in our capacity as advisers to the Governments in the rational application of existing knowledge, in the elucidation of problems of immediate import for the above-mentioned general purpose, in the improvement of human resources, and in the moderniza- tion of the complex technology needed for dealing with a process of such importance for health, welfare, and economic growth. The Governments of the Americas have clearly decided progressively to reduce the incidence of foot-and-mouth disease because it means the loss of proteins essential to children under 5 years of age whose mortality annually accounts for 45 per cent of all deaths. Evidence has been repeatedly produced to show that well-nourished children resist environmental assaults, especially infectious diseases and those of a psychological nature, whereas the mal- nourished child-a by-product of underdevelopment-rapidly falls victim to them. Among the survivors there is a growing proportion whose impaired intellectual development is reflected in the inability to learn and to grow. Mal- nutrition in the final months of pregnancy and in the first six months of life gives rise to as much as a 30 per cent reduction in the number of brain cells; these are the findings of research studies being carried out with the collaboration of our Organization. According to conservative estimates, the protein loss due to foot-and-mouth disease and some of the more prevalent zoonoses affecting cattle is about 25 per cent, a figure that needs to be expressed in terms of the loss of human lives and the reduced intellectual capacity we have mentioned. In addition, we must take into account the economic consequences for the countries, the lag in agricultural policy, and constraints on production and productivity. All these factors mili- y vi Addresses tate against the progress of the Hemisphere, which should be measured scien- tifically and realistically. The order of magnitude of the figures usually cited in this context justifies the inereasingly urgent drive to reduce the incidence of and possibly to eradicate those diseases. These facts point up the need for a system of coordination and reference, a true focal point to which the Governments and their experts can turn for the solution of the biological, epidemiological, and administrative problems that confront us today and may confront us in the years ahead. Thus we understood, and, I go as far as to say, anticipated many years ago the responsibilities of the Pan American Zoonoses Center and the Pan American Foot-and-Mouth Disease Center, both of which are administered by our Organization. We shall hear what these two institutions have done in the past year and their plans for the immediate future. We have received the considered opinions of the Scientific Advisory Committee which is composed of distinguished authori- ties of the Americas. In its report the Committee stated that "it is essential that progress of control activities in foot-and-mouth disease be measured in terms of reasonable and practicable epidemiological parameters as outlined in the guide for the evaluation of campaigns prepared by the Center, rather than in terms of doses of vaccine produced, number of vaccinations performed, or number of personnel employed in the field." In other words, statistics on the dynamics of the disease must be collected and analyzed periodically, and not only those relating to current control methods. With a virus that exhibits so high a degree of variation in nature, we cannot rely exclusively on inoculation with an immunizing agent, no matter how well tested it might be. If we are to adapt methods of prevention to the characteristics shown in each environment by infectious diseases affecting a large number of living organisms, we must closely follow their evolution. Closely related to these ideas are the principles and methods of planning, organizing, and administering animal health programs. They are part of a process that is supported by investments the size of which must be assessed in terms of the costs incurred and the benefits achieved: the last-mentioned, both in the long-term and in the short-term, are focused on the well-being of mankind. We shall learn of the significant progress made in immunizing sheep and hogs, and of the possibilities of the industrial production of vaccines and their intro- duction into general use. If this happens, it will be possible to make a global attack on foot-and-mouth disease in its main reservoirs and, once these have been reduced to small foci, to eliminate the disease through the slaughter of the infected animals that remain. The Center has made valuable scientific contributions to the identification of viruses, both the classical types and new subtypes; to the preparation and assay of inactivated vaccines derived from modified live virus, and-what is of enor- mous practical significance-to the identification of carriers by means of a tech- nique which it is in a position to make available to the countries. It has con- tinued and, one might say, has institutionalized its program of education and advanced training for professional personnel specializing in various aspects of the prevention or control of the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. 1 Document RICAZ-2/3 (mimeographed). Abraham Horwitz vii We shall also report on the achievements of the Pan American Zoonoses Center in the field of rabies, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and hydatidosis-with respect to epidemiology, diagnostic procedures, control methods, and new lines of research-as well as on the advisory services to the Governments. Some of these problems will be discussed in depth in your working sessions. We also wish to report on the research carried out by the Institute of Nutri- tion of Central America and Panama (INCAP) on

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