A serological classification of bovine enteroviruses.

Cross virus neutralization (VN), complement fixation (CF) and immunoprecipitation (IP) tests were employed to compare the seven currently recognized bovine enterovirus (BEV) serotypes with seven serologically distinct strains previously isolated in Great Britain and two other BEV from the United Kingdom. Based on criteria used to differentiate other human and animal picornavirus serotypes, it was discovered that BEV types 1, 4, 5 and 6 were related to each other and could be included in a single serotype. Types 3 and 7 were found to be identical, and related to serotype 2. All of the other nine BEV were included in either serotype 1 or 2. Not all of the strains in each serotype were identical and antigenic variants were designated as subtypes. Antigenic relationships not revealed by VN were demonstrated in CF and IP tests. Bovine enterovirus strains whose antisera had the broadest intratypic reactivity were suggested as prototypes. The two proposed BEV serotypes could also be distinguished by their ability to agglutinate erythrocytes. Guinea pig erythrocytes were agglutinates by both serotypes while sheep red cells only reacted with serotype 1.