Important Landmarks in the history

of Foot and Mouth Disease 

 

1546

Description of the disease (Fracastorius)

1897

Identification of the causal agent (Loefiler & Frosch); First example of an animal disease caused by a virus

1920

Demonstration that guinea pigs are susceptible to the disease; the first small  experimental animal to be used for FMD work (Waldmann & Pape 1920)

1922-6

(Vallée & Carré 1922; Waldmann & Trautwein 1926)

1925

First vaccination against the disease (Vallée et al.)

1930

Growth of virus outside animal body (Hecke 1930, 193,)

1947 Growth of virus on large scale in tongue tissue fragments, making mass       vaccination possible (Frenkel)

1948

Recognition of three serotypes from Southern Africa distinct from 0, A and C (see Brooksby 1958)

1951

Use of suckling mouse as experimental animal (Skinner)

1952

Mass vaccination started in Holland

1954

Recognition of 7th serotype, Asia 1 (Brooksby 1958).

1958

Observation of virus in electron microscope (Bachrach & Breese)

1958

Role of 146S particle in immunization (Brown & Crick). Isolation of infectious ribonucleic acid from the virus (Brown et al.)

1962 Growth of virus in a cell line (Mowat & Chapman; Capstick et al.)

1963

Purification of the virus particle (Brown & Cartwright)

1965 Demonstration of recombination between virus strains (Pringle)

1966

Viral polymerase recognized by serological methods (Cowan & Graves)

1969

Protein composition of virus determined (Wild et at.; Burroughset al.)

1969

Importance of single protein in immune response recognized (Wild et at.)

1973

Demonstration that a single isolated protein will evoke neutralizing antibody (Laporte et at.)

1977

Biochemical mapping of the virus genome (Sangar et al.)

1981 Expression in E. coli cells of the immunogenic protein (Kleid et al.)

1982

Chemical synthesis of a peptide which evokes protective response (Bittle et at.; Pfaff et at.)

1984

First crystals of the virus particle (Fox et at. 1987)

1986

First complete nucleotide sequence of the virus genome (Clarke & Carroll)