Strategies for eliminating lumpy skin disease report by EFSA lately published
A report about the most effective strategies for eliminating lumpy skin disease (LSD) has been recently published by EFSA.
Lumpy skin disease (LSD) has recently been contained into the Balkan region showing a drop of number of diseases outbrakes by 95 percent from 2016 to 2017. The recomendation by the Standing Group of Experts to the countries in South-East Europe to collaborate with the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Diseases in order to draft a roadmap on a LSD exit strategy from 2018 onwards has provoked EFSA to assess the epidemiology and the effectiveness of different surveillance systems of LSD.
By using a spread epidemiological model, the report shows that only two years are sufficient to eliminate LSD virus from a territory, assuming a vaccination effectiveness of 80% and the coverage of 90% of herds, while 4 and 3 years of vaccination campaigns are needed assuming a vaccination effectiveness of 65% with 50% and 90% of herd coverage respectevly.
The report underlines the need of monitoring a large number of herds to detect the disease promptly.
EFSA suggests to cover important research gaps about the transmission of disease, duration of protective immunity, influence of vectors, dignostic tests and epidemiological status of bordering countries.
The document can be dowloaded here: https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5452
