Virus Inactivation Kinetics

At the session of the Research Group of the Standing Technical Committee of the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Chania, Crete, Greece, FMDV inactivation kinetics were again discussed and it was concluded that more experimental data was needed but that existing data should be thoroughly reviewed and be the basis for subsequent specific recommendations for experimental studies to be performed. It was agreed that Prof. Matthias Greiner would facilitate a review of the available data on FMDV inactivation in meat and meat products and that Prof. Soren Alexandersen would facilitate a review of existing data on FMDV inactivation in milk and milk products. The findings and conclusions in regard to meat and meat products will be presented separately by Matthias Greiner. The existing knowledge in regard to FMDV excretion, transmission and stability of FMDV relevant for estimating the risk of raw and treated milk and milk products is briefly reviewed below and has been previously reviewed by Donaldson and by Haas (Donaldson, 1997; Haas, 2003). The review below focuses in particular on areas of uncertainty where suitable data are sparse or missing.