Prevalence of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Goat and Sheeps in Various Districts of Punjab-Pakistan

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a contagious viral disease that affects animals with cloven feet. It is prevalent in Pakistan, resulting in significant economic losses. The study's goal was to determine the sero-prevalence of FMD in small ruminants (sheep and goats) maintained near large ruminants that had recently had an FMD epidemic. The research was carried out in ten districts of Pakistan that were carefully chosen. Between 2019 and 2021, 1760 sera were collected from small ruminants. Using the CHEKIT FMD-3ABC bo-ov kit, serum samples were analyzed for antibodies against FMD viral non-structural protein (3ABC) (IDEXX laboratories, USA). 2 test and multiple logistic regression techniques were used to examine the data. In small ruminants, the sero-prevalence of FMD was 27.22% (479/1760). The sero-prevalence of FMD in goats (288/1006; 28.63%) was considerably higher (P<0.001) than in sheep (191/754; 25.33%). After controlling for other variables, the risk of FMD in sheep was higher than in goats (CI: 0.4-0.78, p=0.001). Overall Male animals had a higher sero-positivity rate of 28.66% (70/244) and 34.53% (86/249) than female animals 23.72% (121/510) and 26.68% (202/757) in sheep and goats respectively. Female animals were more likely than male animals to test positive for FMD infection (P<0.003). District Chakwal (22.51%) had a substantially lower and District Rawalpindi had maximum (34.53%) sero-prevalence than the other districts (p<0.001). The data suggest that FMD is prevalent in small ruminants housed in close quarters with large ruminants, and that these animals might operate as FMD viral reservoirs and infection sources in vulnerable cattle.