GENOME VARIATION IN THE SAT TYPES OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH-DISEASE VIRUSES PREVALENT IN BUFFALO (SYNCERUS-CAFFER) IN THE KRUGER-NATIONAL-PARK AND OTHER REGIONS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA, 1986-93

Dideoxy nucleotide sequencing of a portion of the 1D gene of SAT-type foot-and-mouth disease viruses (FMDV) was used to derive phylogenetic relationships between viruses recovered from the oesophageo-pharyngeal secretions of buffalo in the Kruger National Park as well as several other wildlife areas in southern Africa. The three serotypes differed from one another by more than 40% while intratypic variation did not e xceed 29%. Within each type, isolates from particular countries were m ore closely related to one another than to isolates from other countri es lending credence to previous observations that FMDV evolve independ ently in different regions of the subcontinent.