The current cross-sectional study was conducted in the Bahawalpur district of Punjab, Pakistan, with the objective of finding out the prevalence of the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) virus in bovine. As a routine successful running of FAO, FMD eradication program in the country and specifically in the district of Bahawalpur, the bovine population exposed to regular vaccination was compared with the non-vaccinated population. A total of 838 bovine sera samples were analyzed through Nonstructural protein enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (NSP ELISA), based on 3ABC protein. The overall prevalence in the Bahawalpur district was 13.84% in bovine. The highest prevalence, at the tehsil level, was found in tehsil Ahmedpur East at 26.17% followed by tehsil Khairpur Tamewali at 23.23%, tehsil Bahawalpur at 13.21%, tehsil Hasilpur at 9.65% and tehsil Yazman 2.72% in bovine. More than 4 years of bovine were significantly seropositive (20.51%) followed by >2-4 years (16.05%). Bovine calves of >7-12 months (14.86%) were significantly seropositive followed by3-6 months (10.39%) of age. Prevalence in vaccinated bovines was 17.66%, significantly higher than compared to 9.70% in non-vaccinated bovines. Molecular characterization revealed two FMD isolates (tehsil Ahmedpur East and tehsil Khairpur Tamewali) belong to serotype O, which showed relatedness (62-71%) with the previously reported FMD virus from the Sargodha district.

Index Terms- Prevalence, Bovines, FMD, FMDV, ELISA,