The Standing Group of Experts on Lumpy Skin Disease (SGE LSD) 11 in South-East Europe under the GF-TADs umbrella was held on 10 February 2022 in online format due to the current pandemic situation. During the meeting, Member countries of the SGE-LSD for Southeast Europe briefly presented their national epidemiological situation regarding that disease. The president of the GF-TADs for Europe Steering Committee, Dr B. Van Goethem, welcomed participants and highlighted that the main goal of the meeting is to exchange information and experience between countries, thereby improving knowledge among MSs.
During the meeting, the OIE gave an overview of what is being reported worldwide through WAHIS, and the European Commission presented the LSD epidemiological situation in Europe and neighbouring areas.
Two extremely important presentations from the EU Reference laboratory and EFSA on the activities of importance to the LSD diagnosis, validation of diagnostic tests, the independent LSD vaccine quality control, and further scientific investigation of new virus strains, including those related to vaccine-virus, given the opportunity to establish a very useful debate. The EURL expert informed participants about several recombinant strains.
For the first time, Mongolia (from the Asia Pacific region) took part and presented their current situation with LSD and prevention measures that were implemented.
The GFTADs global secretariat has announced that they are going to initiate an interregional meeting for LSD (Europe, Asia Pacific) in order to exchange experience and best practices between regions.
The SGE LSD11 developed a set of recommendations on Vaccination, Surveillance, and other activities. Amongst these, it was highlighted that mass vaccination with homologous vaccines should be considered in countries still affected to eliminate the virus, and quality control should be carried out on the vaccine.
The decision to continue or stop LSD vaccination in 2022 should be based, among other factors, on the LSD occurrence in the country/territory or zone in the previous years, the vaccination coverage achieved during the past years, and the possible risk of disease introduction from neighbouring countries/territories.
Members were presented with a set of recommendations and invited to provide comments.
