A Newly Emerging Serotype A Strain in Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus with Higher Severity and Mortality in Buffalo than in Cattle Calves in North Egypt

Samy Metwally; Nabil Bkear; Yassien Badr; Besheer Elshafey; Sadeq K Alhag; Laila A Al-Shuraym; Gaber Batiha; Bassant Fakhry; Rania Hamada

doi:10.3390/vetsci10080488

A Newly Emerging Serotype A Strain in Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus with Higher Severity and Mortality in Buffalo than in Cattle Calves in North Egypt

Vet Sci. 2023 Jul 27;10(8):488. doi: 10.3390/vetsci10080488.

Authors

Samy Metwally^{1

2}, Nabil Bkear¹, Yassien Badr¹, Besheer Elshafey³, Sadeq K Alhag⁴, Laila A Al-Shuraym⁵, Gaber Batiha⁶, Bassant Fakhry¹, Rania Hamada⁷

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt.
² Laboratory of Global Infectious Diseases Control Science, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
³ Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt.
⁴ Biology Department, College of Science and Arts, King Khalid University, Muhayl Asser 61913, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt.
⁷ Division of Clinical Pathology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt.

Abstract

A severe foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) epidemic struck several Egyptian provinces recently, causing significant losses among animals even in vaccinated farms. This study indicated the existence of the newly emerging foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) and first investigated its effect on the Egyptian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and cattle calves in the Beheira province, north Egypt. Twenty tongue epithelial samples from diseased calves in five infected farms were randomly collected, prepared, and propagated using baby hamster kidney-21 (BHK-21) cells. Whole genomic RNA was extracted from the cells of the third passage. A FMDV genome was detected and serotyped using one-step reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCRs). Nucleotide sequencing of the purified serotype-specific PCR bands was performed, and a maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on 600 base pairs of VP1 was constructed. The results identified FMDV, serotype A in all infected samples, whereas the serotypes O and SAT2 were negative. The obtained 20 sequences were identical to each other and similar to the newly reported strain in Egypt that belongs to the Europe-South America (Euro-SA) topotype. The epidemiological and clinical parameters associated with such a strain were fully recorded by veterinarians and analyzed in a single infected farm including 70 cattle and buffalo calves. It caused higher peracute mortalities in buffalo (25.7%; 95% CI: 13-43) than in cattle (8.6%; 95% CI: 2-24) calves. Severe clinical signs such as dullness, hypothermia, bradycardia, and cardiac arrhythmia were common to both except in fatal cases, whereas hyperthermia and respiratory signs were prevalent in cattle calves. In conclusion, we first characterized the newly emerging FMDV in the calves of Beheira as more fatal and severe in buffalo than in cattle calves.

Keywords: Egypt; FMDV; buffalo; calves; fatal; serotype A.

Grants and funding

Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding this work through Large Groups Project under grant number (R.G.P.2/77/44)./Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2023R365), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.