EN
The period of swine vesicular disease (SVD) virus persistence in clinical and tissue samples from experimentally infected pigs was investigated. A range of samples including epithelial tissue from vesicles, nasal swabs, blood, faeces and organs were collected to examine for the presence of infectious SVD particles, genomes and antigen. For this purpose, the conventional and PCR techniques were applied. The RT-nPCR assay appeared to be the most sensitive for the detection of SVDV in samples taken late in the course of infection. Only by nested PCR we could found the presence of vRNA in blood and nasal swabs as long as 4 and 48 d.p.i. , respectively. Using virus isolation and RT-nPCR it was possible to detect viral genome in faeces up to 70 d.p.i. By RT-nPCR, the vRNA could be detected in somatic muscles and tonsil till 25 and 48 d.p.i., respectively. The virus could not generally be found in other organs beyond 7 d.p.i. The described RT-nPCR procedure can be useful for the duration estimation of infection of pigs with SVDV.