Out of the lab and into the world

Most days you can call me Mr Molecule for I am to be found with my head buried in a thicket of atomic bonds. But every so often I pull myself free of my protein structures and take a look at the world outside.

That’s what I’m doing today because I have come to the charming old town of Erice in Sicily to attend an EU conference on the control of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Those of you in the UK will be familiar with this viral scourge of cloven-hoofed livestock since there have been outbreaks in recent memory—in 2001 and 2007.

But this is not just a local difficulty; it is a worldwide problem. The global nature of the disease was emphasized on the first day of the conference. We had talks from scientists from Brazil, Argentina, India, the USA, Russia, Iran, China, Holland, Germany, South Africa and the UK. And the message is that this disease is far from licked. It is endemic in many parts of the world and will require a truly concerted effort to reduce the level of incidence.

The virus has been known and investigated for over 100 years but there is still much to be learned about the molecular, cellular and immunological aspects of FMDV infection. But tackling this disease will also require plenty of work outside the immediate confines of the laboratory. Many of the regions affected are poor and inaccessible, so it is difficult to maintain effective surveillance of the identity of the most prevalent circulating strains. As with many other viral diseases, vaccine stocks need to be matched to the virus types occurring in the field, but the reliability of measures to determine the efficacy of vaccines against strains that they do not match perfectly is a point of keen contention. In Africa, disease control is difficult because many of the farms are smallholdings, where animals are not restricted by fences and live in contact with wild buffalo that are a natural reservoir for the virus. In India the fight against FMD is complicated by the sacredness of cows – they simply cannot be slaughtered.

And yet we have gathered on a rocky mountain-top in Sicily as a global community seeking to pool our ideas and to plot a way forward. There are tensions and concerns. The mosaic of small-scale studies seems to not quite add up to the sum of its parts. The efficacy of vaccine preparations is a variable feast. And in private someone posed the ‘unspoken’ question: how much does it suit the rich, disease-free nations to have FMD in countries that might otherwise compete for their meat markets?

I am on the periphery here, peddling my structures, so I may be misreading things. But there are detectable currents of cooperation and, although there are clearly difficulties ahead, I am heartened by the sense of the scientific community, at work.

P.S. Internet connection rather patchy here – please don’t be disheartened if I don’t respond promptly to comments!