Decision-support for a global disease control effort
OpenFMD is an open-access portal maintained by the FAO World Reference Laboratory for Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (WRLFMD) at The Pirbright Institute, UK, to support global pathogen surveillance and stimulate the real-time exchange of data between FMD reference laboratories and disease control initiatives.
The Pirbright Institute
The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD)
A global information hub
Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is a highly contagious transboundary disease and a major global biosecurity threat that has significant impacts on agriculture and trade. To support the control of FMDV we helped build openFMD, combining surveillance data and decision-support into a central resource.
A joint effort
Working in collaboration with the research team at The Pirbright Institute we developed three highly customised tools to support global and national disease control efforts; FMDwatch, FMDtype and PRAGMATIST. OpenFMD supports pathogen surveillance and facilitates real-time data exchange between FMD reference laboratories and disease control initiatives.
FMDwatch
FMDwatch integrates detailed FMD surveillance data detected, assessed and reported by both the WOAH/FAO FMD Laboratory Network and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) through the World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) portal, providing an advanced tool to interactively explore the historical and current FMD epidemiological situation worldwide. FMDwatch provides a real-time monitoring tool of FMD events at different geographical levels through an effective digital surveillance system that enhances early FMDV threat detection and assessment.
FMDtype
FMDtype is a tool that performs quality checks, annotation, genotyping, genetic sequence alignment and phylogenetic reconstruction of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) VP1 coding sequences. FMDtype assigns user uploaded sequences to the most-likely FMDV lineage out of all currently designated FMDV prototypes, reconstructs their phylogenetic placement and generates ad-hoc genotyping reports in PDF format.
PRAGMATIST
PRAGMATIST is an interactive tool developed to assist risk managers to select which FMDV vaccine strains are most important to maintain in their antigen bank. This tool provides a transparent and accessible, evidence-based decision framework to evaluate available vaccine antigens that can be adopted based on current risks to country covered by the bank.
Making disease insights accessible
OpenFMD facilitates the retrieval, analysis and dissemination of FMD surveillance data, including global epidemic intelligence, genome sequences and disease determinants. Customisable filters, sophisticated queries and intuitive visualisations enable users to interrogate the data, facilitating understanding of how different FMD strains evolve and spread.
Presentations
Muellner P, Di Nardo A, Muellner U, McLaws M, Tennakoon C, Yang L, Knowles N J, Tervoort-McLeod S, Sammin D, Rosso F, King D. openFMD: A data sharing and decision-support portal to enhance genomic and epidemiological surveillance of FMD. 3rd Australian Biosecurity Symposium, Australia, August 2024.
Muellner P, Di Nardo A, McLaws M, Tennakoon C, Knowles NJ, Muellner U, Yang L, Tervoort-McLeod S, King DP. openFMD: A data sharing and decision-support portal to enhance genomic and epidemiological surveillance of FMD. Poster Session, One Health Aotearoa (OHA) Symposium, New Zealand, December 2023.
Muellner U. Using “code first” dashboards to make genomic data more accessible. Current and Future Challenges in Veterinary Virus Genomics, Surrey, United Kingdom, June 2022.
Publications
Ludi A, McLaws M, Armson B, Clark J, Di Nardo A, Parekh K, Henstock M, Muellner P, Muellner U, Rosso F, Prada J, Horton D, Paton D, Sumption K, King D. PRAGMATIST: A tool to prioritize foot-and-mouth disease virus antigens held in vaccine banks. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 9. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.1029075, 2022.