Infectivity of Ribonucleic Acid from Mice and Tissue Culture infected with the Virus of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Abstract

SEVERAL workers^1–5 have recently reported the preparation of infective ribonucleic acid from tissues or tissue cultures infected with animal viruses, using the phenol method described by Gierer and Schramm⁶ for tobacco mosaic virus. In this laboratory, ribonucleic acid prepared by the same method from pig kidney tissue cultures infected with the virus of foot-and-mouth disease (strain 997—Waldmann type C) has been shown (a) to induce cytopathic effects in pig kidney cell monolayer cultures, (b) to paralyse and ultimately kill unweaned mice if administered intramuscularly, and (c) to yield in tissue culture and in mice virus of the same immunological type as the original strain (complement fixation and serum neutralization tests).