Gamma Radiation for Sterilizing the Carcasses of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Infected Animals

Experiments on sterilization by means of gamma rays of the carcasses of animals experimentally infected with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) have been carried out. In the first part the author studied the presence and survival of FMDV in the carcasses and in the organs of infected slaughtered animals. The results obtained are sufficient to underline the problem of the sterilization of carcasses of animals infected by FMDV. The experiments on the inactivation of the FMDV by gamma irradiation in vitro showed the same radiation sensitivity of the three types, O, A and C, of FMDV inaqueous solutions and showed that the fraction of surviving virus is an exponential function of the gamma-ray dose. The results obtained confirm the remarkable resistance of viruses to the effect of radiation. As far as the dry virus is concerned special tests indicated the necessity of greater doses for inactivating the same virus in the dry as opposed to the liquid state. In the third part the author studied the possibility of utilizing gamma rays for the sterilization of carcasses of infected (or suspected of being infected) FMDV animals using some tissues of infected animals (pigs) (blood, bone marrow, vertebrae, lymph nodes). The results obtained show that the inactivation of FMDV types O, A and C in the carcasses of infected animals can be made by treatment with gamma rays. (author)