Meta-analysis on the efficacy of routine vaccination against foot and mouth disease (FMD) in China

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks have been reported in China for many years. Recently, due to the rapid economic development, the price of meat and its demand have grown quickly. This trend has resulted in an increase in the number of livestock moving from south-east Asian countries into China. Foot and mouth disease is becoming one of the most important trans-boundary animal diseases affecting the livelihood of livestock owners in China. To contribute to the long term goal to control and eradicate FMD from China, the Chinese government has adopted a series of control measures which includes compulsory routine vaccination against the disease. In this paper, the surveillance results of the routine vaccination programme were systemically reviewed. The results from 28 published papers were combined and analysed through a meta-analysis approach. The results of the meta-analysis indicated that the vaccination programme has been very successful in China with more than 70% of animals protected against serotypes Asia-1 and O.