foot-and-mouth disease virus

The foot-and-mouth disease virus is the pathogen that causes foot-and-mouth disease. It is a picornavirus, the prototypical member of the Aphthovirus genus. The disease, which causes blisters in the mouth and feet of bovids and other cloven-hoofed animals, is highly infectious and a major plague of animal farming.

The virus particle has an icosahedral capsid made of protein, without envelope, containing a single strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA) containing a positive encoding of its genome. 

The foot-and-mouth disease virus occurs in seven major serotypes: O, A, C, SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3, and Asia-1. These serotypes show some regionality, and the O serotype is most common.