October 11, 2010

UK researchers study efficacy of FMD emergency vaccination

Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark and Institute for Animal Health in the UK carried out a meta-analysis on the efficacy of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) emergency vaccination.

The objectives of this study were to provide a summary quantification of the efficacy of FMD emergency vaccination based on a systematic review and a meta-analysis of available literature, and to further discuss the suitability of this review and meta-analysis to summarise and further interpret the results.

Peer-reviewed, symposium, and unpublished studies were considered in the analysis. Clinical protection and virological protection against FMD were used as parameters to assess the efficacy of emergency vaccination.

The clinical protection was estimated based on the appearance of clinical signs including FMD lesions and fever, while the virological protection parameter was estimated based on the outcome of laboratory tests that were used to diagnose FMD infection. A meta-analysis relative risk was calculated per protection parameter.

No significant bias that would alter the conclusions was encountered in the analysis. Meta-analysis can be a useful tool to summarise literature results from a systematic review of the efficacy of FMD emergency vaccination.