Historical Timeline of FMD in Chile

·    Chile has been free of FMD for fourteen years

·    In 1960, the Minister of Agriculture decided to create an FMD control program

·    In 1965, the FMD control program was implemented, but at that time, eradication was not the goal of this plan. The vaccines used for this program were not very effective until an efficacious vaccine was obtained from Uruguay.

·    In 1969, Chile had many foci of FMD, but a few years later, the prevalence greatly decreased due to the political change in 1973. Consequently, the country suffered an economic crisis and the importation of animals halted, thus decreasing the introduction of the disease. An additional factor that helped the decrease in FMD occurrence was that people started consuming meat from their own region and therefore, the movement of livestock between regions diminished. Also, it was prohibited to slaughter pregnant animals to help increase the local herd size.

·    In 1974, Chile became free of FMD with vaccination.

·    In 1979, vaccination ceased.

·    By 1981, according to the OIE, Chile was declared free of FMD without vaccination.

·    There were outbreaks in 1984 and 1987 that were controlled by “stamping out.” The initiating cause of both outbreaks was determined to be from the smuggling of animals from Argentina within the VII Region.  A total of 32,369 head of cattle were slaughtered in the 1987.

·    A more detailed history of the control and eradication of FMD, which lead to Chile being declared a FMD free country, and a history of the eradication of FMD in the 1987 outbreak can be obtained from Servicio Agricola y Ganadero.

·    Currently, Chile is free of all List A Foreign Animal Disease’s, including FMD, which is advantageous from an economic perspective for exportation of all trade products.