Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals throughout the world caused by Foot-and-mouth Disease Virus (FMDV). The endemicity of this disease in Bangladesh has been causing high economic loss and an impediment to the full potential surge of livestock industries. Therefore, the FMD research team of Microbial Genetics and Bioinformatics Laboratory at the Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka aimed to address the technological shortfalls to develop an effective vaccine by local isolates of FMDVs as well as to establish sustainable and fruitful FMD vaccine production processes, both inactivated and recombinant protein based vaccine. The research team is under esteem guidance of Professor Md. Anwar Hossain, one of most successful microbiologists in Bangladesh. Jointly, Dr. Munawar Sultana plays the most interactive supervising role to instruct the FMD research team

1. Foot-and-mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) inactivated vaccine: In Bangladesh, vaccination using imported or locally produced FMD vaccines is the existing practice of controlling the disease, although vaccine failure cases are very common. Hence, to address the problem, we were envisaged to develop an effective mono-di-and-trivalent FMD vaccine tailored to the circulating indigenous foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) strains of O, A and Asia1. The trivalent FMD vaccine prepared with three selected serotype (O, A and Asia1) candidate viruses will confer protection against circulating FMDVs of Bangladesh and its neighboring countries. The vaccines were found safe for cattle as no side effect was observed in the vaccinated cattle. Protective antibody titer in 100% cattle vaccinated with full dose of vaccine was observed. The results of the efficacy indicate that the developed trivalent vaccine could be suitable to combat the FMD field situation in Bangladesh. As emergence and re-emergence of new serotypes or subtypes of same serotype, continuous monitoring of FMD outbreaks throughout country is very crucial for the control of FMD. In silico analyses predict the incursion of FMD viruses in Bangladesh from the neighboring countries which warns about to stop unrestricted animal movement. Continuous monitoring as well as vaccination with the newly developed inactivated trivalent FMD vaccine will contribute to effective control of the disease in livestock population.
2. Foot-and-mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) peptide vaccine: Due to diversity of prevalent strains, we have developed chimeric recombinant proteins consisting serotype-specific multiple epitopes of FMDV strains. These artificially designed proteins have been extensively studied through latest bioinformatics approaches to ensure strong antigenicity and immunogenicity. These recombinant proteins have been synthesized biologically using rapid and cost effective techniques followed by validation of physical and chemical characteristics of them. Animal model experiment revealed the immunogenic potency of these recombinant proteins which have affirmed these proteins as potential vaccine candidates against circulating serotypes of FMDV in Bangladesh
3. Patent:

The signatory of patent as per rule is the University authority, hereby Registrar of the University of Dhaka. Marketing initiatives and policy will be proclaimed by the signatory authority, i.e. University of Dhaka

Marketing: Our FMDV vaccine has passed all types of clinical trials and ready for marketing with proper industrial collaboration.

5. Publications: A number of research publications have been published in highly reputed international journals with high impact factors. National and international conferences has been attended by the students and researchers devoted to research every year. Few publications are mentioned below:

Israt Dilruba Mishu, Salma Akter, A. S. M. Rubayet Ul Alam, M. Anwar Hossain, Munawar Sultana. In Silico Evolutionary Divergence Analysis Suggests the Potentiality of Capsid Protein VP2 in Serotype Independent Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Detection. Frontiers in Veterinary Science (accepted)

Islam, M. Rafiul, M. Shaminur Rahman, Md Al Amin, ASM Rubayet Ul Alam, Mohammad Anwar Siddique, Munawar Sultana, and M. Anwar Hossain. "Evidence of combined effect of amino acid substitutions within G‐H and B‐C loops of VP1 conferring serological heterogeneity in foot‐and‐mouth disease virus serotype A." Transboundary and Emerging Diseases (2020).

Al Amin, Md, Md Rahmat Ali, ASM Rubayet Ul Alam, Mohammad Anwar Siddique, Md Mizanur Rahaman, Munawar Sultana, and Md Anwar Hossain. "Complete genome sequence of a potential foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype O vaccine strain from Bangladesh." Archives of Virology (2020) 165:2119–2122

Al Amin, Md, M. Rahmat Ali, M. Rafiul Islam, ASM Rubayet Ul Alam, Dipok Kumer Shill, M. Shaminur Rahman, Mohammad Anwar Siddique, Munawar Sultana, and M. Anwar Hossain. "Development and serology based efficacy assessment of a trivalent foot-and-mouth disease vaccine." Vaccine 38 (2020) 4970–4978.

M Rahmat Ali, ASM Rubayet Ul Alam, Md Al Amin, Mohammad Anwar Siddique, Munawar Sultana, M Anwar Hossain. Emergence of novel lineage of foot‐and‐mouth disease virus serotype Asia1 BD‐18 (G‐IX) in Bangladesh. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases (2020): 67: 486-493

M Al Amin, M Rahmat Ali, ASM Rubayet Ul Alam, Mohammad Anwar Siddique, Huzzat Ullah, Munawar Sultana, M Anwar Hossain. Near-Complete Genome Sequence of a Potential Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype A Vaccine Strain Isolated from Bangladesh. Microbiol Resour Announc 8:e00031-19. https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA .00031-19.

Alam ASMRU, Ali MR, Siddique MA, Ullah H, Sultana M, Hossain MA. 2019. Near-complete genome sequence of a representative strain within a rare foot-andmouth disease virus O/ME-SA/Ind2001BD2 sublineage from Bangladesh. Microbiol Resour Announc 8:e00705-19. https://doi.org/10.1128/ MRA.00705-19

Siddique, M. A., Ali, M. R., Alam, A. S. M. R. U., Ullah, H., Rahman, A., Chakrabarty, R. P., Amin, M. A., Hoque, S. A., Nandi, S. P., Sultana, M., and Hossain, M. A. Emergence of two novel sublineages Ind2001BD1 and Ind2001BD2 of foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype O in Bangladesh. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases: 2018;00:1–15. doi: 10.1111/tbed.12834

Ali MR, Alam ASMRU, Amin MA, Ullah H, Siddique MA, Momtaz S, Sultana M, Hossain MA. 2017. Complete genome sequence of the circulatory foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype Asia1 in Bangladesh. Genome Announc 5:e01135-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/genomeA.01135-17.

Ali MR, Alam ASMRU, Amin MA, Ullah H, Siddique MA, Momtaz S, Sultana M, Hossain MA. (2017) Complete Genome Sequence of the Circulatory Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype Asia1 in Bangladesh. Genome Announcement 5:e01135-17.  https://doi.org/10.1128/ genomeA.01135-17.

M. Rahmat Ali, Huzzat Ullah, Mohammad Anwar Siddique, Munawar Sultana, M. Anwar Hossain (2016) Complete Genome Sequence of Pig Originated Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O from Bangladesh 20126. Genome Announcement 4(5):e01150-16. doi:10.1128/genomeA.01150-16

SP Nandi, MZ Rahman, S Momtaz, M Sultana, MA Hossain (2015), Emergence and Distribution of Foot‐and‐Mouth Disease Virus Serotype A and O in Bangladesh; Transboundary and emerging diseases Volume 62, Issue 3, pages 328–331, June 2015

Ullah, H., Siddique M.A., Amin, M.A., Das, B.A., Sultana, M. and Hossain, M.A. (2015) Re-emergence of Circulatory Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotypes Asia1 in Bangladesh and VP1 Protein Heterogeneity with Vaccine Strain IND 63/72. Letters in Applied Microbiology, DOI: 10.1111/lam.12354

M. Sultana, M. A. Siddique, S. Momtaz, A. Rahman, H. Ullah, S. P. Nandi, M. A. Hossain, 2014: Complete Genome Sequencing of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O Isolated from Bangladesh in 2013.  Genome Anouncement, 2, January/February 2014, doi: 10.1128/genomeA.01253-13

Ullah, H., Siddique, M.A, Sultana, M., and Hossain, A.M.(2014) Complete Genome Sequence of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Type A Circulating in Bangladesh. GenomeA 2(3)(accepted), (genomeA00506-14).

Samina Momtaz, Arafat Rahman, Munwar Sultana and M Anwar Hossain (2014). ‘Evolutionary Analysis and Prediction of Peptide Vaccine Candidate for Foot-and-Mouth-Disease Virus Type A and O in Bangladesh’. Accepted on the Journal, Evolutionary Bioinformatics.

Nandi, SP., Rahman, MZ., Momtaz, S., Sultana, M., and Hossain, MA Emergence and Distribution of Foot-and-Mouth Disease virus (FMDV) serotype A and O in Bangladesh Transboundary and Emerging Diseases: Doi: 10:1111/tbed.12113

Book Chapter:

Salma Akter, Mohammad Anwar Siddique, A. S. M. Rubayet Ul Alam, Munawar Sultana and M. Anwar Hossain Coordination of Molecular Techniques and Advanced Bioinformatics Tools for Analyzing Viral Evolutionary Distance with an Emphasis on Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) Serotype O. Trends in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2019)(Chapter 13) New York:Nova Science Publishers

Conferences:

1. Hossain, MA. (2019) Foot-and-Mouth Disease: Global Scenario and Asia Perspective. ICESMT-2019, Baramati, India, February 7-9, 2019.
2. Siddique, MA., Ali, MR., Alam, ASMRU., Ullah, H., Rahman, A.,Chakrabarty GenomeA, RP.,Amin, MA.,Nandi, SP.,Akhter, S., Shill, KD.,  Momtaz, S., Sultana, M.,Hossain, MA  (2018) Emergence of Two Novel Sub-lineages Ind2001BD1 and Ind2001BD2 under circulatory O/ME-SA topotype of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Bangladesh. ASM- 2018, USA.
3. Amin, MA., Ali, MR., Alam, ASMRU., Ullah, H., Siddique, MA.,, Momtaz, S., Sultana, M., Hossain MA (2018) Complete Genome of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype Asia1 isolated from Bangladesh reveals Capsid Protein Heterogeneity with vaccine strain IND 63/72. ASM- 2018, June 7-11, USA.
4. Alam, ASMRU., Ali, MR., Amin, MA., Siddique, MA., Ullah, H., Sultana, M. and Hossain, MA. (2018)  molecular Characterization of Foot-and- Mouth Disease Virus in Bangladesh from 2012 to 2016, 10th AFOB regional symposium, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
5. Sultana,M.,  Siddique, MA., Rahman, A.,  and   Hossain, MA. (2017) Genomics and proteomics of foot-and-mouth disease virus circulating in Bangladesh. Int. Conf. on Bioinformatics and Biostatistics for Agriculture Health and Environment. P 38, 20-23 Jan. 2017, Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
6. Rahman, A., Alam, SMB., Hossain, S., Sultana, M. (2017) Visualization and Exploration of New Genotypes Using FMDV Genotyping Tool. P11, p996 20-23 Jan. 2017, Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
7. Sultana,M.,  Ullah, H.,  Siddique, MA., Rahman, A.,  Towhid, ST., and   Hossain, MA.  2016. Molecular Phylogeography of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus in Bangladesh. ASM, Boston. June16-20, 2016.
8. Siddique MA, Ullah H, Chakrabarty RP, Sultana M and Hossain MA. 2015. Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Bangladesh: Epidemiology and Genome Analysis. Submitted in 115^th General Meeting, American Society for Microbiology (Control/Tracking Number: 15-A-2968-GM-ASM).
9. Siddique MA, Ullah H, Rahman A, Chakrabarty RP, Sanyal SK, Sultana M and Hossain MA. 2015. Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Bangladesh-Genomic Analysis and Vaccine Failure. Presented in International Conference of Biotechnology in Health and Agriculture (ICBHA) 2015 organized by Global Network of Bangladeshi Biotechnologist (GNOBB) held in Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
10. Ullah H, Siddique MA, Sultana M and Hossain MA. 2014. Distribution and Prevalence of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Bangladesh. SLAYS-IFS Joint Symposium, Sri Lanka, Nov 13-14, 2014
11. Momtaz S,UllahH, SiddiqueMA, RahmanA, NandiSP, SultanaM and Hossain MA. 2014. Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Bangladesh: Circulatory Types and Vaccine Candidates. IUMS-2014, Montreal, Canada, July 27-August 1.
12. Nandi SP, Rahman MZ, Momtaz S, Sultana M and Hossain MA. 2013. Emergence and Distribution of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) subtypes during recent outbreaks in Bangladesh- accepted by Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS), in Fifth Congress of European Microbiologist: July 21-25, 2013; Liepzig, Germany.
13. Islam, M.A., Haque, E.M., Moktadir, M.G., Chowdhury, M.M.I., Kamal, M.M., Hossain, MA., Kuurosaki, Y., and Yasuda, J. 2013. Isolation and Molecular Detection of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Viruses of the 2012-2013 Outbreak, Circulating in Bangladesh. CARES, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Int. Conf. Biotechnol May 25-26.
14. Alam, SMA, Amin, MR., Sultana, M., and Hossain, MA. 2012. Antigenic Variation of Capsid protein VP1 of Foot and Mouth disease Virus Prevalence in South Asian regions. AFSA Ann. Conf. Sept. 15-17, 2012, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan
15. Rahman, A, Ashraf, MA, Alam, SMA, Khatun, F., Hossain,S., Hossain, M., Zaman, F., Sultana, M., Hossain, MA. 2012. FMD Virus Genotyping Tool. . AFSA.  Ann. Conf. Sept. 15-17, 2012, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan
16. Sabbir, SM, Amin, MR, Jesmin, Nur-E-Kamal and Hossain, MA 2012. Antigenic variation occurred in Foot and Mouth disease virus major capsid protein VP1 of asia1 in different countries in south asian region for past twelve years. FAO/OIE Global Conference on Foot and Mouth disease control, June 27-29, Bangkok, Thailand

Invited Lecture/ Keynote Talk/Plenary talk

1. Hossain, MA. (2019) Foot-and-Mouth Disease: Global Scenario and Asia Perspective. ICESMT-2019, Baramati, India, February 7, 2019 (Keynote talk)
2. Hossaina, MA. (2018)  Molecular characterization of Foot-and- Mouth Disease Virus in Bangladesh from 2012 to 2016, 10th AFOB regional symposium, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
3. Hossain, MA (2017) Progressive control pathway for FMD: success and failure in achieving the target control program in Bangladesh, 14^th Ann. Sci. Conf. CVASU, April 1-2, 2017.
4. Hossain, MA (2016) Foot-and-Mouth Disease: Current Scenaro in the Asia and in Bangladesh. 3^rd Regional Conference on Biosensors, Biodiagnostics, Biochips and Biotechnology. April 20-22, AIMST University Campu, Malaysia.
5. Hossain, MA (2016) Foot and Mouth Disease Virus Types in Bangladesh: Epidemiology and Prevention Strategies.  2^nd International South Asian Biotechnology Conference 2016 on Biotechnology for Sustainable Development. Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
6. Hossain, M.A. (2014) Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Bangladesh: Circulatory Types and Vaccine Candidates, 15 August, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS), Plum Island, FADDL, USA.

NCBI publication: Complete Genome of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Viruses

1. Ullah H, Siddique MA, Sultana M and Hossain MA. 2014. Complete genome sequence of foot-and-mouth disease virus type A circulating in Bangladesh. Accession Number- KJ754939.
2. Sultana M,Siddique MA, Momtaz S, Rahman A, Ullah H, Nandi SP and Hossain MA. 2014. Complete Genome Sequencing of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O Isolated from Bangladesh in 2013.  Accession Number-KF985189.
3. Ali, MR., Rubayet Ul Alam, ASM., Al Amin, M., Ullah, H., Siddique, MA., Munawar Sultana, M., Hossain, MA. 2018. (Accession Number MF782478). Complete Genome Sequence of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype Asia1 Isolated from Bangladesh.

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