The use of vaccines in South American foot-and-mouth disease eradication programmes.

Since the beginning of organized campaigns in the 1960s, vaccination has been a major component of national FMD control and eradication programmes in South America. Aqueous vaccines were used in the 1960s and 1970s, and the introduction of oil vaccines in the mid 1980s helped to decrease endemism. Bi- and trivalent FMD vaccine production increased from 266 thousand doses in 1967 to 580 million doses in 2002. Currently, over 200 million cattle are vaccinated twice yearly throughout the continent. This massive vaccination programme, along with outbreak and animal movement control, helped eradicate FMD in sizeable areas in the 1990s. Outbreaks in the Southern Cone during 2000/2001 were curbed mostly by repeated massive vaccination of cattle. The Hemispheric FMD Eradication Plan, with its end date of 2009, relies on cyclic vaccinations as a major instrument. Vaccination as the major component will continue until when?