Abstract
PROGRESS in the prevention and cure of foot-and-mouth disease is hampered by the fact that no method has yet been devised for cultivating the virus in vitro; and since it cannot be seen, it can only be propagated and recognised by the inoculation of susceptible animals. Further, the control of the disease is rendered more difficult by the fact that at least three types of the virus are known: immunity produced by an attack due to one type does not render the animal any the less susceptible to attack by one of the other types; and, finally, the immunity produced is only relatively short-lived. In spite of these handicaps, the Third Progress Report of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Committee, 1928,1 gives a detailed account of much research work directed towards increasing our knowledge of the natural history of the disease, and of methods of destroying, the virus and of producing immunity in susceptible animals. Owing to the reconstruction of the Experimental Station at Pirbright, the work has been confined to experiments on small laboratory animals—guinea-pigs and rabbits,—other rodents possessing a high degree of natural resistance,—carried out at New Haw, the Lister Institute, and the National Institute for Medical Research.
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Foot-and-Mouth Disease. Nature 122, 616–617 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122616a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122616a0