U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers have identified the primary site where the virus that causes foot and mouth disease (FMD) begins infection in cattle. This discovery could lead to development of new vaccines to control and potentially eradicate FMD, USDA said.
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The discovery was made by scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center at Orient Point, N.Y.
Veterinary medical officer Jonathan Arzt, research leader Luis Rodriguez and microbiologist Juan Pacheco found that after just six hours of exposure to the FMD virus through the cow's nasal passages, the virus selectively infects epithelial cells in the nasopharynx, a specific region of the back of the cow's throat.
"Because we have determined the actual route the FMD virus takes in infected cattle, we can now begin to target the virus-host interaction in an effort to develop better vaccines and biotherapeutic countermeasures against the disease," Arzt said.
The research was published in the November issue of Veterinary Pathology and featured on the cover of that issue.
