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…