[Determination of the subtype membership of the epizootic foot-and-mouth disease virus by means of the agar gel diffusion test].

Comparative studies were carried out by means of the agar gel-diffusion technique (AGDT) to establish the antigenic identity between the epizootic foot-and-mouth disease strain (the Nch/73 representative strain) and the standard viruses of type A. The epizootic strain was found to belong to the subtype group A5. Discussed is the usefulness of AGDT in determining the antigenic relations between the foot-and-mouth disease viruses.