Objective:
Carry out genomic evaluation of field isolates of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV). Establish and employ improved methods for FMDV detection and typing.

Approach:
Almost every year, new outbreaks of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) occur in different parts of Pakistan. At present, serotypes A, O and Asia-1 are prevalent in the country, however, no institute is carrying out routine subtyping of new isolates. On the other hand, FMD-vaccine is also being used in the field; however, the vaccine produced within the country at public institutes is a bivalent product, not including any new sub-type prevalent in the country. This vaccine only covers 5% of the population and another 5% of the population is vaccinated by using imported vaccines from different sources. The above information indicates that there is a need to undertake proper typing and characterization of FMDV on a regular basis. This will lead to the development of type-specific vaccine locally. To undertake the proposed study, field isolates of FMDV will be collected, propogated and characterized on the basis of RT-PCR, sequencing and phylogenic analysis. The sequence data of the previous isolates for selecting variants to be used for vaccine development and evaluation.