Occurrence of foot and mouth disease serotypes in Tanzania: a retrospective study of tongue epithelial tissue samples.

Samples of suspected foot and mouth disease (FMD) cases were collected via veterinary investigation centers (VIC) from different geographical locations of Tanzania during the period of 1997 to 2004. Samples were derived from cattle (n =142) and wildebeest (n =8) that suffered from oral and foot lesions associated with lameness in addition to fever in some and innappetence in others. Epithelial tissue and vesicular lesions of the tongue were taken on glycerol buffer saline for serotyping of FMD virus. Antigens of FMD disease virus detected by indirect-sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay indicated that serotype O, Southern African Territories, SAT 1 and SAT 2 viruses had being circulating in Tanzania. Serotyping of the 65(43.3%) sero-positive samples indicated serotypes O (41.5%), SAT 1 (32.3%) and SAT 2 (26.2%). No serotype A was recovered from animal samples screened. No serotypes were recovered from Central and Western zone regions. The geographical distribution of the seropositive cases suggested that, SAT 1 exposure was widespread and particularly high in Southern and Eastern zone regions whereas serotype SAT 2 and O was patchy and more concentrated in the Northern and Southern highland zone. Key words : Foot and mouth disease, cattle, spatial distribution, Tanzania