Hafez S M, Farag M A, Mazloum K S, al-Bokmy A M
National Agriculture and Water Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Water, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dtsch Tierarztl Wochenschr. 1993 Mar;100(3):103-6.
Using foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) diagnostic reagents provided by the FMD-World Reference Laboratory, Pirbright (United Kingdom), an indirect sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was applied for local diagnosis of FMD in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Testing epithelial tissues and/or vesicular fluids, it was possible to carry out serotyping of FMD virus before its isolation in cell cultures. All the field samples received as well as the oesophageal pharyngeal fluids collected from apparently healthy animals were inoculated onto primary bovine kidney cell cultures and the isolated FMD viruses then serotyped by ELISA. Testing of samples received from 43 outbreaks revealed positive FMD diagnosis in 29 outbreaks (27 caused by serotype "O" and 2 caused by serotype "A" of FMD virus). In addition, ELISA serotyping of 35 carrier strains of FMD virus (isolated from 286 proband samples) revealed 28 serotype "O" and 7 serotype "A" FMD viral isolates. The results are discussed concerning the importance of applying local FMD diagnosis and the current epizootiological status of the disease in Saudi Arabia.
