Location: Foreign Animal Disease Research
Project Number: 3022-32000-064-051-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2026
End Date: Jun 30, 2027
Objective:
The objectives of the proposed work serve to enhance protection of U.S agriculture from incursions of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) by modeling of evolutionary and epidemiological trajectories of FMDV based on within-and between host viral dynamics.
Specific Objectives:
1) Understand how viral selection in novel host environments drives evolutionary trajectories by analyzing viral genetic and phenotypic changes associated with FMDV spread from wildlife reservoir hosts to domestic livestock.
2) Investigate evolutionary consequences of super-infection (second viral infection) by modeling within-host immune- and viral dynamics during single (primary) infection compared to super-infection during acute and persistent phases of infection.
3) Evaluate if FMDV recombinants arise in persistently infected wildlife hosts and if such viral variants constitute a significant transmission risk.
Approach:
This work will leverage the collaborators access to unique data derived from field investigations in FMD endemic regions. These data include FMDV sequences obtained from wildlife reservoir hosts (buffalo) and domestic cattle obtained as part of epidemiological surveys and outbreak control efforts. Additional data will be leveraged from the collaborator’s controlled experimental investigations, which include viral and host immune dynamics of single-strain and multi-strain co-infections as well as traced within-group transmission networks and longitudinal monitoring of viral evolution through persistent infections. Novel sequence data will be obtained by the collaborator through external commercial services.
In Phase 1, Phylogenetic analyses will seek to identify viral genomic changes or motifs associated with spillover from reservoir hosts to previously naïve wildlife hosts and domestic livestock. Viral genetic profiles will be associated with clinical severity (phenotype) of FMD observed in recipient hosts. Changes in viral phenotypes over time (from initial spillover to establishment in new host populations) will be related to viral evolution.