Heterogeneity of foot-and-mouth disease virus: further studies on plaque formation by two plaque-size variants.

Plaque production by a small-plaque (SP) and large-plaque (LP) variant of foot-and-mouth disease virus, type A, strain 119 (FMDV, A119), was influenced by a number of environmental factors. The SP variant produced plaques on cells of the IB-RS-2 cell line from swine kidney and to a lesser degree on primary cultures of swine kidney cells, but plaque formation was inhibited on primary cultures of bovine kidney (BK) cells unless diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) dextran was added to agar overlays. When DEAE dextran-treated agar overlay was used, the LP variant formed larger plaques on BK cells but not on IB-RS-2 cells. Concentrations of DEAE dextran from 0 to 100 microg/ml greatly enhanced the formation of SP virus plaques on BK cells but had little or no effect on the average size of plaques produced by the LP variant. Higher concentrations of polycation enlarged the plaques formed by both variants. Plaque sizes of the SP and LP variants increased as the concentration of agar or agarose in the overlays decreased. Reducing the concentration of agar to 0.75% facilitated the formation of SP virus plaques, but better plaque production occurred under agarose overlays. The original parent virus consisted predominantly of virus particles that formed small plaques. The rate of neutralization of the parent virus by guinea pig antiserum prepared against the parent virus was faster than antiserum inactivation of a low-passage virus of the same serotype and strain.