Occurrence of cross reactions to foot-and-mouth disease virus in normal swine sera.

Sera from 101 swine never exposed to foot-and-mouth disease virus were tested by the plaque-reduction neutralization (PRN) and radial immunodiffusion techniques for cross-reactions to 5 types of foot-and-mouth disease viruses. Depending on the group of sera and the virus used, the percentage of sera cross-reacting at low levels varied from 0 to 50% with the PRN technique and 0 to 20% with the radial immunodiffusion technique. 5erum-neutralization tests in mice support the finding of neutralizing antibody by the PRN technique. Ultracentrifugation and 2-mercaptoethanol studies indicate that the cross-reactions are the result of immunoglobulin M or similar macroglobulins.