Selection of foot and mouth disease vaccine strains--a review.

The choice of the most appropriate strains of foot and mouth disease (FMD) virus vaccines to use in FMD control programmes and to store in vaccine antigen reserves is based on the matching of representative field isolates from outbreaks around the world to available vaccine strains. However, those involved in FMD control at a national level do not always give this work a high priority, while in countries without effective control of FMD there is little incentive to collect samples or to overcome the constraints on submission to international reference laboratories. In the short term, specific initiatives for targeted collection can provide samples on a periodic basis, but a long-term solution requires the development of FMD control measures.