Scientific Opinion on the assessment of the control measures for category A diseases of Animal Health Law: Foot and Mouth Disease

EFSA received a mandate from the European Commission to assess the effectiveness of some of thecontrol measures against diseases included in the Category A list according to Regulation (EU) 2016/429 on transmissible animal diseases (‘Animal Health Law’). This opinion belongs to a series ofopinions where these control measures will be assessed, with this opinion covering the assessmentof control measures for foot and mouth disease (FMD). In this opinion, EFSA and the AHAW Panel ofexperts review the effectiveness of: i) clinical and laboratory sampling procedures, ii) monitoring periodand iii) the minimum radius of the protection and surveillance zones, and the minimum length of timethe measures should be applied in these zones. The general methodology used for this series ofopinions has been published elsewhere; nonetheless, the transmission kernels used for the assessmentof the minimum radius of the protection zone of 3 km and of the surveillance zone of 10 km areshown. Several scenarios for which these control measures had to be assessed were designed andagreed prior to the start of the assessment. The monitoring period of 21 days was assessed aseffective, and it was concluded that the protection and the surveillance zones comprise>99% of theinfections from an affected establishment if transmission occurred. Recommendations, provided foreach of the scenarios assessed, aim to support the European Commission in the drafting of furtherpieces of legislation, as well as for plausible ad hoc requests in relation to FMD.