Abstract

ABSTRACT
Background: Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most contagious diseases among domestic animals. FMD is endemic in most of Africa, Asia and most parts of South America with sporadic outbreaks in Europe resulted of spread from the Middle East. However, serotype O, A and SAT2 were identified as the cause of outbreaks in Egypt since 1953 until now.
Methods: collected samples were tested with the rapid antigen detection kit for FMD virus as well as ELISA test. Some positive samples were serotyped using PCR specific primers and isolated on BHK-21 to detect their pathogenicity. Representative viruses were sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed together with other reference isolates.
Results: We identified the three different FMD virus serotypes “O, A and SAT2” circulated in Egypt during 2014-2015. The infection was identified by using the routine diagnostic method “ELISA” and the rapid detection test “lateral flow device”. The results showed high sensitivity and specificity of the LFD with 95% and 100%, respectively. Furthermore, 84.6% of virus samples tested by RT-PCR were positive and six out of nine viruses were isolated on the BHK-21 and properly grow on the cells causing visible CPE. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the serotype O viruses were originated from O/SUD/8/2008 and close to O/Ein Ghosin/EGY/1/2014 and O/El-Kassasen/Egy/1/2014 while the serotype A viruses were originated from A/IRN/25/2005 and close to A/Rafah/Gaza/164294/2013 and A/Egypt/AL-Fayoum/2013.
Conclusion: This study proved the circulation of three different FMD virus serotypes O, A and SAT2 in Egypt; as well as it showed the high sensitivity of the LFD test and exhibits the importance of studying the efficacy of the used vaccines in Egypt.

Key words: FMDV;LFD;PCR;ELISA