Characterization of the structural-protein-coding region of SAT 2 type foot-and-mouth disease virus

The South African Territories (SAT) types of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus show marked genomic and antigenic variation in sub-Saharan Africa that is to a large extent geographically determined. This has implications for selection of appropriate vaccine strains as well as the accuracy of laboratory diagnosis. However, adaptation of field isolates as vaccine strains is cumbersome, time consuming and expensive. We propose the construction of recombinant viruses in which specific antigenic determinants can be manipulated. To achieve this goal, the structural-protein-coding region of a SAT 2 vaccine strain, ZIM 7/83/2, was determined and compared with two other known SAT 2 P1 regions. Five hypervariable regions were identified of which four are situated within VP1. The cleavage sites for proteolytic processing differs from serotype A, while the junction between P1/2A is variable within the SAT 2 serotype. These differences could influence the construction of recombinant vaccines.