Serodiagnostic strategy for estimation of foot-and-mouth disease viral activity through highly sensitive immunoassays using bioengineered nonstructural proteins

Antibody profile responses elicited against foot-and-mouth disease virus nonstructural proteins, under various experimental and field conditions, were detected by means of highly sensitive immunoenzymatic approaches. On the basis of the results obtained, useful inferences were made for proper interpretation of seroepidemiologic surveys in the determination of residual viral activity in an animal population, regardless of its vaccination condition, and for import/export testing. In this work several considerations on survey strategy and assay approaches are discussed.