Antigenic analysis of type O foot-and-mouth disease virus in the persistently infected bovine.

The antigenic profiles of serotype O strains of FMDV collected from the oropharynx of persistently infected cattle were defined with a panel of monoclonal antibodies (mAb's) in an indirect antigen-trapping ELISA. The mAb profiling showed no significant loss of reactivity in two neutralising antigenic sites of persistent FMDV isolates collected over a period of eight months. Early and late serum taken from a carrier animal showed similar neutralising activity against early and late carrier isolates. The antigenic stability of serotype O strains of FMDV collected during the carrier state suggests that antigenic variation facilitated by pressure from the host humoral immune response is not critical to the establishment or maintenance of a persistent infection with FMDV.