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Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is endemic in Southeast Asia (SEA) and East Asia with circulation of multiple serotypes and multiple genotypes within each serotype of the virus. Although countries like Japan and South Korea in the Far East were free of FMD, in 2010 FMD serotype O (O/Mya-98) outbreaks were recorded and since then South Korea has experienced several FMD outbreaks despite regular vaccination. In this study a total of 85 serotype O FMD viruses (FMDV) isolated from 2007 to 2012 from SEA, East Asia and Far East were characterized by virus neutralisation tests using antisera to four existing (O/HKN/6/83, O/IND/R2/75, O/SKR/2010 and O/PanAsia-2) and one putative (O/MYA/2009) vaccine strains, and by full capsid sequencing. Serological studies revealed broad cross-reactivity with the vaccine strains; O/PanAsia-2 exhibited a good match with 95.3%, O/HKN/6/83 with 91.8%, O/IND/R2/75 with 80%, and the putative strain O/MYA/2009 with 89.4% isolates employed in this study. Similarly O/PanAsia-2 and O/IND/R2/75 vaccines showed a good match with all eight viruses belonging to O-Ind-2001d sublineage whereas the vaccines of O/Mya-98 lineage, O/MYA/2009 and O/SKR/2010 exhibited the lowest match indicating their unsuitability to protect infections from O-Ind-2001d viruses. A Bayesian analysis of the capsid sequence data indicated these circulating viruses (n = 85) to be of either SEA or Middle East-South Asian (ME-SA) topotype. The ME-SA topotype viruses were mainly detected in Lao PDR, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand reflecting the trade links with the Indian subcontinent, and also within the SEA countries. Implications of these results in the context of FMD control in SEA and East Asian countries are discussed.

Variable regions of the African swine fever virus genome, which contain arrays of tandem repeats, were compared in the genomes of isolates obtained over a 40-year period. Comparison of the size of products generated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from four different genome regions, within the B602L and KP86R genes and intergenic regions J286L and BtSj, placed 43 closely related isolated from Europe, the Caribbean, West and Central Africa into 17 different virus sub-groups. Sequence analysis of the most variable fragment, within the B602L gene, from 81 different isolates distinguished 31 sub-groups of virus isolates which varied in sequence and number of a tandem repeat encoding 4 amino acids. Thus, each of these analysis methods enabled isolates, which were previously grouped together by sequencing of a more conserved genome region, to be separated into multiple sub-groups. This provided additional information about strains of viruses circulating in different countries. The methods could be used in future to study the epidemiology and evolution of virus isolates and to trace the sources of disease outbreaks. © 2006 Springer-Verlag.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the tactile circumferential discriminator (TCD) (Tacticon Medical Enterprises, West Chester, PA), a new, simple, handheld quantitative sensory testing device, in the identification of patients at potential risk of neuropathic ulceration. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Patients with diabetes (n = 133) attending the Manchester Diabetes Centre or diabetic foot clinic seen within a 5-week period were assessed using the TCD, monofilaments, and vibration perception threshold (VPT) measured over the hallux. The sensitivity and specificity of each method in the identification of "high-risk" patients were compared. RESULTS: The TCD was easy to use, and there was a highly significant correlation between the results obtained compared with both filaments and VPT (P < 0.0001). Similarly, in the identification of patients at risk of ulceration, the TCD agreed with VPT in 75.2% of cases and with the monofilaments in 78.9%. In the identification of the 37 foot ulcer patients, TCD was highly sensitive (100%) but less specific (58.3%) than VPT (86.5%; 79.2%) and the monofilaments (91.9%; 76.0%). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the TCD is a simple and reliable new technique for population screening for neuropathy and foot ulcer risk.