Roadmap for the research to underpin the development of control strategies for FMD

What are we trying to achieve and why? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

To assess the costs and benefits of new generation of improved FMD control strategies.

What are the scientific and technological challenges (knowledge gaps needing to be addressed)?

• Assess (and disseminate information on) the real impact of the disease on the people or the real impact of control strategies (both in endemic and free countries).
• Design models able to evaluate in real-time the cost effectiveness of various control, surveillance, and sampling
  strategies.
• Better consider the level of expenditure appropriate for contingency planning in order to advise governments.
• Systematically quantify and compare the costs of routine FMD control programmes with the direct and indirect costs of outbreaks, in both endemic and free settings.

What approaches could/should be taken to address the research question?

Use existing economic tools and platforms, such as the GBADs dashboards and Model Builder (https://www.gbadske.org/dashboards/), to develop and compare scenarios on the costs and benefits of different FMD control options, including routine vaccination, enhanced surveillance and outbreak response strategies.

What else needs to be done before we can solve this need?

Knowing the prevalence and cost of FMD.

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

Recent initiatives, such as the GBADs programme, provide structured tools and data sources that can support more consistent estimation of the economic impact of FMD and the evaluation of alternative control strategies.