0000000000704657
AUTHOR
Miguel Angel Martinez
Comparison of vaccine strains and the virus causing the 1986 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Spain: epizootiological analysis
RNAs of the most recent foot-and-mouth disease virus isolated in Spain (A5Sp86) during the 1986 outbreak, and of the three vaccine strains in use at that time in that country, have been compared. Although these viruses are serologically indistinguishable, differences have been found among them by T1 fingerprinting. This genetic heterogeneity affects the immunogenic VP1 gene, with amino acid changes located at the carboxyterminal end of the molecule. VP1-coding sequences obtained have been compared with those previously reported for European A5 FMDVs and it has been possible to trace their phylogenetic origin. The most parsimonious evolutionary tree obtained shows that the viruses analyzed a…
Fixation of mutations at the VP1 gene of foot-and-mouth disease virus. Can quasispecies define a transient molecular clock?
The number of nucleotide (nt) substitutions found in the VP1 gene (encoding viral capsid protein) between any two of 16 closely related isolates of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) has been quantified as a function of the time interval between isolations [Villaverde et al.,J. Mol. Biol. 204(1988)771-776]. One of them (isolate C-S12) includes some replacements found in isolates that preceded it and other replacements found in later isolates. The study has revealed alternating periods of rapid evolution and of relative genetic stability of VP1. During a defined period of acute disease, the rate of fixation of replacements at the VP1 coding segment was 6 × 10-3 substitutions per nt per year…
Genetic Variability and Antigenic Diversity of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute systemic disease of cloven-hooved animals, including cattle, swine, sheep, and goats. Despite mortality rates being generally below 5%, FMD severely decreases livestock productivity and trade. It is considered the economically most important disease of farm animals. Near two thousand million doses of vaccine are used annually to try to control FMD, which, nevertheless, is enzootic in most South American and African countries, parts of Asia, the Middle East, and the south of Europe. The causative agent, foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), is an aphthovirus of the family Picornaviridae, a historically important virus as it was the first recognized vir…