The 14th OIE-FAO FMD Reference Laboratories Network Annual Meeting held in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 4 to 5, December 2019, which was organized by the WRLFMD, UK, and hosted by APQA, Korea. Delegates from OIE, FAO, OIE/FAO FMD reference laboratories, and some national laboratories were participated in the meeting. Dr. Guo Jianhong and He Jijun from Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, CAAS and OIE/China national Foot and Mouth Disease Reference Laboratory, were invited to attend the meeting.

At the “closed meeting” focused on important activates from network membership, those progresses since last annual meeting held in UK, 2018 were reviewed. Delegates from OIE and FAO introduced the activities supporting FMD control from OIE and FAO individually. All participants were invited to visit APQA, Korea On the first afternoon.

Dr. Don King from WRLFMD also reported the global situation of FMD. Dr. He Jijun reported the summary work of China National FMD reference laboratory, especially diagnosis, situation, surveillance and PTS, collaborative project and other progress in China. Delegates from pool 1 to pool 7 laboratories also separately reported their updates on FMD situation , control and prevention. In order to get more information for risk analysis and risk control, groups discussion based on endemic pools were carried out.

On the following day, vaccine suitability for endemic settings, harmonization of serological approaches and selection of FMDV Reference antigens and sera for endemic settings in Africa and Asia, and assessing the quality of FMDV vaccines for East African countries were discussed.

From the meeting, the global FMD situation information, especially the SEA, EA region, and the progress on control and prevention in other pools were understudied. (CNFMDRL, 10 Dec, 2019)