Molecular Studies of Foot And Mouth Disease Virus

FMDV is a long known virus but still a current threat in our country withdevastating consequences as shown in FMD outbreak in 2006 in Egypt. One ofthe most important FMDV features is the high potential for genetic andantigenic variation besides the carrier state in FMD, especially in buffalos.Therefore, molecular study of FMDV is pre-requisite for amplification ofFMDV specific genomic fragment and also copying specific serotypes 0 and Anucleotides sequence from FMDV variants clinical and cultural samples. Also,the role of FMDV carrier buffalos in transmitting the virus to in-housedsusceptible livestock should be investigated. - Three buffalo calves were exposed to experimental infection with FMDV OIEGY/93. The 1 st buffalo received bovine derived virus while the 2nd and the 3rd one were inoculated with the virus collected from the were penned with susceptible ruminant farm animals. Also, the virus collectedfrom bovine was passaged on BHK-21 cells to prepare the vaccine strain.-FMDV serotype 0 isolation in tissue cultures and demonstration by RT-PCR,using combination of oligonucleotides, were carried out on various clinical and cultural samples. -In addition, virus isolation and molecular identification of suspected FMDVduring 2006 epidemic in Egypt were performed. Achieved results:-The experimentally infected buffalo calves showed FMD typical clinical signsHowever, the in-housed livestock with the virus carrier buffalos did not reveal any clinical finding or seroconversion to FMDV. -Virus isolation from FMDV specimens in IB-RS-2 an