Differences in the virulence of two strains of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype A with the same spatiotemporal distribution

SOLEDAD GARCÍA-NU˜NEZ; GUIDO KÖNIG; ANALÍA BERINSTEIN; ELISA CARRILLO

VIRUS RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2010 p. 149 - 152

0168-1702

During the 2000–2001 epidemic of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) in Argentina, two FMDVserotype A viruses were identified among others. Since different pathogenic properties between thesevirus strains were noticed in cattle, we evaluated several biological properties and features of FMDVA/Arg/00 and FMDV A/Arg/01 in order to compare these viruses in terms of virulence and pathogenicity.Our results indicate that FMDV A/Arg/00 grows less efficiently than FMDV A/Arg/01, exemplified bysmaller sized plaques, retarded one-step growth curves and overall low viral yields. Also, FMDV A/Arg/00displayed the lowest specific infectivity in suckling mice requiring 50-fold more infectious particles thanFMDV A/Arg/01 to generate a LD50 in suckling mice. Finally, FMDV A/Arg/00 did not cause death in adultC57Bl/6 mice even at high doses (107–106 PFU) whereas FMDV A/Arg/01 resulted lethal in doses as lowas 102 PFU. Overall, we were able to demonstrate that these virus strains differ from each other in termsof virulence and pathogenicity.