Quantitative analysis of infection dynamics of foot-and-mouth disease virus strain O/CATHAY in pigs and cattle

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) serotype O, topotype CATHAY is a known porcinophilic virus that has caused devastating damage to the pig industry. However, the minimum infectious dose via a natural infection route in pigs, the infection dynamics in cattle, and risk of viral transmission from infected cattle to pigs have not been quantitatively analyzed. The FMDV strain O/HKN/1/2015 was serially diluted and inoculated into pigs via an intraoral route to determine the infectious dose. We found that a 104.0 tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) of the virus was insufficient, but 105.5 TCID50 was sufficient to infect pigs via the oral route. While cows inoculated with the strain showed increased temperature in their feet, typical clinical signs including vesicular development were not observed. The cows showed short-term and low levels of viremia and virus excretion only before the detection of virus neutralizing antibodies. FMDV genes were not detected in esophageal-pharyngeal fluid from cows after 14 days post inoculation. No genetic insertions that could be associated with host adaptation were observed in viruses isolated from infected cows. These findings indicate that cows infected with FMDV of O/CATHAY have a low risk of viral transmission or persistence. Information on the dynamics of virus infection is essential for ensuring the rapid and accurate diagnosis of this disease, and its surveillance.