This study investigated the potential of pooled milk as an alternative sample type for foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD) surveillance. Real‐time RT‐PCR (rRT‐PCR) results of pooled milk samples collected weekly from five pooling facilities in Nakuru County, Kenya, were compared with half‐month reports of household‐level incidence of FMD. These periodic cross‐sectional surveys of smallholder farmers were powered to detect a threshold household‐level FMD incidence of 2.5% and collected information on trends in milk production and sales. FMD virus (FMDV) RNA was detected in 9/219 milk samples, and using a type‐specific rRT‐PCR, serotype SAT 1 was identified in 3/9 of these positive samples, concurrent with confirmed outbreaks in the study area. Four milk samples were FMDV RNA‐positive during the half‐months when at least one farmer reported FMD; that is, the household‐level clinical incidence was above a threshold of 2.5%. Additionally, some milk samples were FMDV RNA‐positive when there were no reports of FMD by farmers. These results indicate that the pooled milk surveillance system can detect FMD household‐level incidence at a 2.5% threshold when up to 26% of farmers contributed milk to pooling facilities, but perhaps even at lower levels of infection (i.e., below 2.5%), or when conventional disease reporting systems fail. Further studies are required to establish a more precise correlation with estimates of household‐level clinical incidence, to fully evaluate the reliability of this approach. However, this pilot study highlights the potential use of this non‐invasive, routinely collected, cost‐effective surveillance tool, to address some of the existing limitations of traditional surveillance methods.

中文翻译：

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利用汇集设施的牛奶作为口蹄疫监测的新方法。


本研究调查了混合牛奶作为口蹄疫 (FMD) 监测替代样本类型的潜力。将每周从肯尼亚纳库鲁县五个汇集设施收集的汇集牛奶样本的实时 RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) 结果与半个月的家庭口蹄疫发病率报告进行比较。这些对小农户进行的定期横断面调查旨在检测 2.5% 的家庭口蹄疫发病率阈值，并收集有关牛奶生产和销售趋势的信息。在 9/219 份牛奶样本中检测到口蹄疫病毒 (FMDV) RNA，并使用类型特异性 rRT-PCR，在其中 3/9 的阳性样本中鉴定出血清型 SAT 1，与研究区域已确认的疫情爆发同时发生。在至少一名农民报告口蹄疫的半个月内，四个牛奶样本呈口蹄疫病毒 RNA 阳性；也就是说，家庭层面的临床发病率高于 2.5% 的阈值。此外，当农民没有报告口蹄疫时，一些牛奶样本却呈口蹄疫病毒 RNA 阳性。这些结果表明，当多达 26% 的农民向汇集设施提供牛奶时，汇集牛奶监测系统可以以 2.5% 的阈值检测 FMD 家庭水平的发病率，但甚至可能在感染水平较低（即低于 2.5%）的情况下，或者当传统的疾病报告系统失败时。需要进一步的研究来建立与家庭水平临床发病率估计的更精确的相关性，以充分评估这种方法的可靠性。然而，这项试点研究强调了这种非侵入性、常规收集、具有成本效益的监测工具的潜在用途，可以解决传统监测方法现有的一些局限性。