Isolation of predominant serotypes of FMD virus in middle of Iraq

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease caused by an Aphthovirus in the family Picornaviridae. The present study was designed for the isolation of FMD virus and detection of its predominant serotypes affected cattle and sheep in middle of Iraq provinces (AI-Diwaniyah, Baghdad, Babil, Al-Najaf and Karbala) by using tissue culture, ELISA and real time PCR techniques, moreover the study was also conducted to study some clinical, epidemiological aspects of the disease. The study was carried out during the period from October 2011 to May 2012. Oral, feet tissues, oesophago-pharyngeal samples were collected from clinically diseased cattle and sheep which were compared with controls.