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The epidemiology of foot and mouth disease (FMD) on the African continent is influenced by two different patterns, viz, a cycle in which wildlife plays a role in maintaining and spreading the disease to other susceptible domestic animals and wild ungulates and a cycle that is maintained within domestic animals and that is independent of wildlife. In southern Africa, the former cycle predominates due to the presence of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), the only wildlife species for which long-term maintenance of FMD has been described (Hedger 1972, Hedger et al. 1972, Hedger 1976, Condy et al. 1985, Thomson 1994, Thomson et al. 2001, Thomson et al. 2003). In East Africa, both cycles probably occur, while in West Africa, due to the absence of significant numbers of wildlife hosts, FMD is believed to be maintained primarily within the domestic animal cycle. The disease is endemic in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Vosloo, Bastos et al. 2002). In southern Africa, where a number of countries have been able to control FMD by separating infected buffalo from livestock and by limited use of vaccination (control policies in South Africa have been described by Brückner et al. 2002 and Thomson et al. 2003), disease-free areas are recognised. FMD cannot be eradicated from southern and East Africa unless all infected buffalo are removed, which is untenable from both ecological and ethical points of view. Lack of movement control within countries and across international borders for both wildlife and domestic animals aggravates the problem, and gives credence to the fact that FMD will remain a problem on the subcontinent for the foreseeable future.