Produccion y control de calidad de la vacuna antiaftosa en America del Sur / Production and quality control of foot-and-mouth disease vaccines in South America

In the production of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines in South America, the 1950's 60's and part of the 70's were dedicated to creating an infrastructure of production laboratories capable of supplying sufficient quantities of FMD vaccine to meet the needs of the programs. That infrastructure has developed significantly in both the private and official sectors. Most of the South American countries now have qualified FMD vaccines laboratories and advanced production technology. Concomitantly, the infrastructure of the official control laboratoraies was established. The standards of the production laboratories and the vaccines they produce were determined. Quality control that should be applied to the vaccines and the minimum requirements of the protection tests for approval of each series were also defined. At the present the most important step to control and eradicate FMD is to improve the epidemiological surveillance as well as the rational and strategic application of the vaccine, according to the ecosystems of the disease in the Continent