COMPARISON OF THE PATHOGENIC, ANTIGENIC AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERISTICSOF 2 ENCEPHALOMYOCARDITIS VIRUS (EMCV) ISOLATES FROM BELGIUM AND GREECE

The pathogenicity of two porcine encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) iso lates for sows in gestation and young piglets was studied. One virus o riginated from a case of reproductive failure in pigs in Belgium and t he other from a case of acute myocarditis in pigs in Greece. Sows in t he mid-gestation period and one- to two-month old piglets were inocula ted with each isolate. The molecular relationship between both isolate s was studied by determining the nucleotide sequence located across th e junction of the 1C and 1D capsid-coding genes. Antigenic analysis wa s performed using a panel of 35 monoclonal antibodies raised against a n Italian field isolate of EMCV. All three approaches revealed differe nces between both isolates and also confirmed that there was no link b etween the two outbreaks of disease.