Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly contagious and economically important disease of
susceptible cloven-hoofed animals, mostly for cattle, buffalo and pigs. This study was
designed to isolate and identify the serotypes of FMD virus from clinically suspected animals
in different localities in Egypt that would be useful to detect the current strains present in
Egypt to be used in the future vaccination program. Tongue epithelium, vesicular fluid and
heart tissue samples were collected from FMDV clinically suspected cases representing four
different governorates in Egypt (Qalubia, Sharkia, Gharbia and Behera). We found that (32)
out of (45) submitted samples showed positive result in real time RT-PCR and about (26) of
these positive samples were isolated on BHK-21 cells giving overt cytopathic effect of the
virus. The isolated viruses were identified and serotyped using antigen detection ELISA and
RT-PCR that confirmed the three different serotypes A, O and SAT2 with different ratio for
their prevalence in Egypt. We found that SAT2 was the predominant circulating serotype in
the field, followed by serotype O and serotype A. Hence, this work demonstrates the co- occurrence of three different FMDV serotypes in Egypt. Consequently, further molecular
analyses are recommended to confirm these findings to determine the molecular
epidemiology of the isolates and to update the nature of future vaccine strains for successful
preventive strategies.