Analysis of mixed foot–and–mouth disease virus infections in Saudi Arabia: prolonged circulation of an exotic serotype

Plaque purification of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) type O viruses isolated from cattle in Saudi Arabia showed the presence of mixed serotype infections. Sixteen out of 31 samples collected between 1985 and 1991 also contained Asia 1 virus, a serotype which had previously only been isolated from a single outbreak in that country in 1980. Nucleotide sequences of the Asia 1 component of all these samples revealed little variation and showed that they were closely related to both a Russian lapinized vaccine virus strain (Asia 1/Tadzhikistan/64), and to a field isolate from Turkey (Asia 1/TUR/15/73). Although mixed FMD infections have been observed previously this is a first report of a serotype, considered to be exotic to a country, co-existing undetected for an extended period of time.