ABSTRACT
Foot-and-mouth is a well-known disease that is caused by the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), which belongs to the picornavirus family. This disease is highly contagious and usually occurs in cloven-hoofed animals, for example, cattle, sheep, pigs etc. Animals are infected if they come into contact with infected animals or contaminated foodstuffs and other contaminated things. This disease was initially distributed all over the world, but now it has been completely eradicated from some regions, including Western Europe and North America. Food-and-mouth disease is a global concern because it can spread quickly and cause significant economic losses. Further, in endemic areas it has long-lasting effects by reducing animal productivity, which in turn lowers the international trade of animal products. Foot-and-mouth disease can be suspected on the basis of clinical symptoms, but this disease cannot be distinguished clinically from other vesicular diseases. Hence, for the management of foot-and-mouth disease, it is extremely important that the diagnosis is rapid, definite and accurate. In this chapter we describe current approaches used for the detection and characterization of FMDVs. These approaches mainly comprise the virus isolation assay, serology-based assay, nucleic-acid-based assay, microarray and pen-side tests.
