In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), GenVec is developing candidate vaccines and anti-viral agents to prevent the spread of FMD.  FMD has been identified as a key potential threat to the U.S. economy and the country’s food supply, whether infection were to occur as a result of bioterrorism or by accidental exposure to the disease.

In studies with DHS, ARS and GenVec, GenVec’s proprietary adenovector system and cell line was utilized to safely produce, for the first time on the U.S. mainland, an effective FMD vaccine. Preliminary testing by DHS scientists has shown that this vaccine candidate effectively prevented clinical disease (symptoms) in cattle when they were challenged with the FMD virus.  Results from these challenge studies were reported on November 11, 2005, at the 8th National Meeting and 1st International Meeting of Researchers of the Livestock Sciences by Marvin Grubman, Ph.D., USDA-ARS, Plum Island Animal Disease Center, who conceived and developed this vaccine approach. The DHS Targeted Advanced Development group at Plum Island Animal Disease Center, led by Laszlo Zsak, D.V.M., Ph.D., is also collaborating with ARS and GenVec in the development of the vaccine.

In addition, anti-viral candidates are being developed to prevent the spread of FMD from the time an outbreak occurs until the vaccine has generated a sufficient immune response to protect the animal.

Without a marked vaccine that can be safely manufactured in the U.S., options for responding to an FMD outbreak in the U.S. are more limited. The curtailment of meat and meat products for domestic supply and the stoppage of meat exports would have severe economic consequences. For example, in its January 2003 Final Report as required by the Animal Disease Risk Assessment, Prevention and Control Act of 2001, the USDA’s Inter-Agency Working Group notes that the 2001 outbreak of FMD in the United Kingdom resulted in the slaughter of some 4 million animals and a loss to the British economy of between $3.6 and $11.6 billion. The report also notes that U.S. exports of cattle, sheep, hogs, and many of their products varies annually from $6 to $10 billion, that many of these exports would face restrictions during an FMD outbreak, and that if even one area of one state was affected by FMD, trade restrictions would be imposed on the nation as a whole, at least during the initial stage of the outbreak.