SHORT COMMUNICATIONS A serological survey for antibodies against foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in domestic pigs during outbreaks in Kenya Sabenzia N. Wekesa & Alice Namatovu & Abraham K. Sangula & Moses T. Dhikusooka & Vincent B. Muwanika & Kirsten Tjørnehøj Accepted: 20 December 2013 /Published online: 18 January 2014 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is endemic in Ken- ya and has been well studied in cattle, but not in pigs, yet the role of pigs is recognised in FMD-free areas. This study investigated the presence of antibodies against FMD virus (FMDV) in pigs sampled during a countrywide random sur- vey for FMD in cattle coinciding with SAT 1 FMDV out- breaks in cattle. A total of 191 serum samples were collected from clinically healthy pigs in 17 districts. Forty-two of the 191 sera were from pigs vaccinated against serotypes O/A/ SAT 2 FMDV. Antibodies against FMDV non-structural pro- teins were found in sera from 30 vaccinated and 71 non- vaccinated pigs, altogether 101/191 sera (53 %), and 91 % of these (92/101) also had antibodies measurable by serotype- specific ELISAs, predominantly directed against SAT 1 with titres of 10–320. However, only five high titres against SAT 1 in vaccinated pigs were confirmed by virus neutralisation test (VNT). Due to high degree of agreement between the two ELISAs, it was concluded that positive pigs had been infected with FMDV. Implications of these results for the role of pigs in the epidemiology of FMD in Kenya are discussed, and in- depth studies are recommended. Keywords Domestic pigs . Eastern Africa . Endemic areas . Foot-and-mouth disease . SAT 1 Introduction Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is endemic in eastern Africa (Kenya included), where four of the seven serotypes of the virus have recently been isolated (O, A, SAT 1 and SAT 2) (Namatovu et al. 2013). FMD affects all cloven-hoofed animals (Alexandersen and Mowat 2005); however, recent East African studies concern cattle (Balinda et al. 2010; Habiela et al. 2010; Kasanga et al. 2012; Mwiine et al. 2010; Sangula et al. 2011; Tekleghiorghis et al. 2013), small ruminants (Balinda et al. 2009; Raouf et al. 2012) and buffalo (Ayebazibwe et al. 2010), while little information is available on pigs. The role of pigs in the epidemiology of FMD has been recognised in outbreaks in FMD-free countries (Chen et al. 2008; Gibbens 2011; Hayama et al. 2012; Knowles et al. 2001), but not in FMD-endemic eastern Africa, where a recent sub-Saharan African survey indicated low prevalences of S. N. Wekesa : A. K. Sangula Foot-and-Mouth Disease Laboratory, Embakasi, P.O. Box 18021, 00500 Nairobi, Kenya S. N. Wekesa e-mail: snabalayo@yahoo.com A. K. Sangula e-mail: aksangula@gmail.com S. N. Wekesa : M. T. Dhikusooka : V. B. Muwanika Department of Environmental Management, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062/7298, Kampala, Uganda M. T. Dhikusooka e-mail: dhiksm@yahoo.com V. B. Muwanika e-mail: vmuwanika@muienr.mak.ac.ug A. Namatovu Department of Biotechnical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda e-mail: alicenmtv207@gmail.com A. Namatovu : M. T. Dhikusooka National Animal Disease Diagnostics and Epidemiology Centre, Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries, P.O. Box 513, Entebbe, Uganda K. Tjørnehøj (*) National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Lindholm, 4771 Kalvehave, Denmark e-mail: kitj@vet.dtu.dk Trop Anim Health Prod (2014) 46:575–581 DOI 10.1007/s11250-013-0530-0