Foot and Mouth Disease ravages Haibowal Dairy Complex

INDIA – Haibowal Dairy Complex, one of Ludhiana’s largest milk supply hubs, has reported an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) that has continually ravaged the cattle population.

Dairy farmers are frustrated by the lack of a government response. According to Paramjit Singh Bobby, chairman of the Haibowal Dairy Farmers Association, repeated calls to the authorities have gone unanswered. One leader has threatened to dump the carcasses on a main road if no action is taken.

The root cause of the inaction appears to be a breakdown in the city’s infrastructure for handling such events. The Municipal Corporation’s carcass plant, designed to manage the disposal of dead animals, is reportedly not operational due to ongoing protests.

Additionally, skinners are refusing to remove the animals due to a lack of space. This perfect storm of inaction and logistical failure is compounding the public health risks, especially given the current monsoon season.

The news follows the identification by researchers from the University of Connecticut and the U.S. Department of Agriculture of a promising genetic target that could help contain and control foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), a highly contagious pathogen posing a serious threat to livestock industries worldwide.

Although FMD has been eradicated from the United States since 1929, experts warn that the risk of reintroduction remains high due to the virus’s rapid spread and continued presence in many parts of the world. 

“This is critical because FMD is one of the fastest-replicating and spreading viruses known to man,” said Steven Szczepanek, associate professor in UConn’s Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science. “By the time you detect the virus on one farm, it’s likely already moved to adjacent farms, so it’s extremely challenging to control.”

The findings, recently published in the Journal of Virology, highlight the role of a gene called myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL 1) in significantly reducing FMDV replication. The discovery opens new avenues for developing targeted therapies or preventive tools that could provide an alternative to economically devastating measures like mass culling.

Spearheaded by Szczepanek, graduate student Aishwarya Mogulothu, and USDA researchers Teresa de los Santos and Gisselle Medina, the study was born from a summer fellowship project through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). 

Mogulothu conducted her research at a USDA high-containment facility, a necessity for working with the reportable FMD virus.

The research leveraged a unique library of cell lines engineered to overexpress specific interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), which are part of the cell’s natural antiviral defences. 

By tagging the virus with fluorescent markers, the team could visually measure how well each ISG suppressed viral replication. 

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