Background and Aim: Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) serotypes A, O and South African Territories (SAT2) are endemic in Egypt; each is presented by a number of partially related topotypes and lineages, depending on their geographical origin. Continuous mutations and the emergence of new topotypes that lead to occasional vaccination failures were frequently recorded, so this study aimed to genetically characterize the circulating FMD virus strains in Egypt during 2013 and 2014 outbreaks, focusing on amino acids variations in VP1 region.

Materials and Methods: A total of 51 oral tissue samples were collected from cattle and buffaloes in 13 farms, and 38 individual cases showed clinical signs suspected to be FMD in six Egyptian Governorates (Cairo, Giza, Qaliubia, Fayoum, Sharquia, and Assiut). FMDV in collected samples was characterized by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification of full VP1 region, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis.

Results: Out of 51 samples, 44 (86.27%) were positive by RT-PCR using universal primers. Serotype O was predominant and detected in 31 samples (70.45%), serotype A was detected in 9 samples (20.45%), and then serotype SAT2 was identified in 4 samples (9.10%). Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of VP1 demonstrated clustering of serotype O, A, and SAT2 in EA-3 topotype, ASIA topotype, and topotype VII, respectively. Serotype O is closely related to O/SUD/8/2008 with 94.6% identity but showed 14.6% differences from vaccine strain (O/PanAsia-2) of ME-SA topotype. Furthermore, Serotype A and SAT2 were closely related to recent circulating Egyptian isolates and vaccine strains type A/EGY/1/2012 (Asia topotype, lineage Iran-05) with identity 96.4% and vaccine strain of SAT2/EGY/A/2012 (topotype VII, lineage SAT2/VII/ALX-12) with identity 95.3%, respectively.

Conclusion: The present study recommended further studies of serotype O to determine the immunogenic relationship between the vaccine strain and the new strains to attain maximum protection against circulating viruses.

Keywords: amino acids variations, Egypt, foot-and-mouth disease virus, FMDV, VP1 sequencing.

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