Two epitope-tagged viruses infectious clone with foreign epitope in the RGD + 9 of VP1 G–H loop were generated indicated RGD + 9 also can be regarded as an insertion for foreign genes.
The foreign epitope can be stably expressed on the rescued virus after passage in BHK-21 cells.
The insertion have no impact on the antigenicity of the FMDV both in vitro and in vivo.
These results laid the foundation for the distinguishing between vaccinated and FMDV-infected animals and the development of novel FMDV vaccine.