Project Number: 1940-32000-057-10
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 30, 2009
End Date: Sep 29, 2014

Objective:
This project will establish collaborative research with two institutions of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research working on FMD to conduct antigenic and genetic characterization of FMD field virus isolates, surveillance, monitoring and vaccine strain selection for FMD control programs in India.

Approach:
Researchers from ARS, the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, and the Project Directorate on Foot and Mouth Disease (PDFMD) will: i) genetically and serologically characterize FMDV strains from cattle, buffalo and sheep circulating in endemic areas of India; ii) utilize phylogenetic and serological studies to determine the serological relationship of FMDV strains and identify viral strains conferring cross reaction against a wide range of subtypes within FMD serotypes; and iii) utilize the hAd5-vector platform to generate candidate vaccines containing the P1 region of the Indian vaccine strains (Serotypes O,A and Asia1) and any other widely reactive Indian field strains and test in pilot proof of concept experiment the serological response of animals vaccinated with the novel hAd5-FMD vaccines compared to current vaccines strains.