The Causative Agent of FMD Disease

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute infection of cloven-hoofed animals caused by foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). It is one of the most serious infectious diseases affecting animal husbandry and a major impediment to international trade in livestock and their products. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), a member of the Picornaviridae family of Aphthovirus, is an icosahedral virus without envelope, 25–30 nm in diameter, containing about 8.4 kb of positive-sense single-stranded RNA. The virus exists in seven different serotypes: A, O, C, Asia1, SAT1, SAT2, and SAT3, but a large number of subtypes have evolved in each serotype. This chapter reviews the genome, structure, serotype, and epidemiology of FMDV, which will help people to further explore the mechanism of the interaction between foot-and-mouth disease virus and host and provide reference for scientific prevention and control of FMDV.