FAO-EUFMD

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease is a statutory body of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, establishment by international agreement of 33 member states in the European region. The object of the Commission is to promote national and international action with respect to preventive and control measures against foot-and-mouth disease in Europe. The promotion of international action continues to involve support for surveillance and control in endemically infected countries, and support for resolution of technical issues through permanent Standing Committee on FMD research, including part-funding of the FAO WRL for FMD at Pirbright. The Secretariat is based in the FAO Animal Health Service, which has a high level of operational support for FMD control in Africa, Asia, the Near East and Latin America, with 12 active projects in 2004. The Animal Health Service implements FAO’s Emergency Prevention Scheme (EMPRES) for animal diseases and provides the Secretariat for the global rinderpest eradication programme, and is working closely with OIE in the development of a program for co-ordinated support to progressively control FMD and other major animal infectious diseases. The regular EUFMD Research Group meetings are important in drawing attention to gaps, priorities, and opinions on technical issues and on the required RTD in relation to current or developing policy in Europe.

Dr. Keith Sumption

Dr. Sumption is a veterinarian with 16 years experience in research and control of tropical virus diseases including foot-and-mouth disease. His position as Secretary of the EUFMD Commission involves the management of FMD surveillance and control actions, oversight of the actions of the EUFMD research group, collation, editing and publication of FMD scientific reports, and review of ongoing research activities and advances on FMD. The work particularly involves science-policy issues at the level of Chief veterinary officers of the Member States. He has a PhD in the molecular epidemiology of African swine fever virus infection.