ABSTRACT. Latex beads agglutination (LA) for the detection of the antibody against virus infection-associated (VIA) antigen of foot-andmouth disease (FMD) virus was estimated using experimentally infected animals. The VIA antibody titer by the LA test were compared with the neutralization titer and the titer by agarose gel diffusion (AGD) test, which has been used as a standard method for VIA antibody titration. The latex beads were coated with VIA antigen in carbonate buffer solution (0.5M, pH9.6) for the test. The sensitivity of the LA test was clearly higher than that of the AGD test in the results for cattle and swine infected experimentally. The antibody was detected in the bovine serum obtained at the 13th week after inoculation by the LA but not by the AGD test. The LA test appears to be simple, rapid and sensitive for the detection of the antibody of FMD virus in the surveillance of FMD and the FMD quarantine of imported animals. Virus-infection-associated (VIA) antigen of foot-andmouth disease (FMD) was first described by Cowan and Graves in 1966 [1]. It was regarded that VIA antigen was a nonstructural antigen corresponding to viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase [5], and that the antibody to VIA antigen (VIA-antibody) was produced in an animal infected or multivaccinated. [2,4]. Moreover, the VIA-antibody reacts with the VIA antigen from any type of FMD virus [1]. The agarose gel diffusion (AGD) test has been widely used as a standard method for the detection of VIA-antibody. The purpose of the present paper was to find a more sensitive method to replace the AGD test, which is not very sensitive. The latex beads agglutination method (LA) was evaluated as a method for the detection of VIA antibody.The VIA antigen used in the experiments was obtained from inactivated FMD vaccine, as described before [6]. The molecular weight of the purified VIA antigen was approximately 56,000. The AGD tests were carried out on slide glass (76 × 26mm). Five ml of one per cent agar in 0.02 M tris buffer solution at pH 7.6 with 0.15 M NaCl was dispensed onto each slide glass. The test pattern consisted of a center well surrounded at a distance of 1.5 mm by six peripheral wells, each 2 mm in diameter. The center well was filled with VIA antigen. Two opposing peripheral wells were filled with positive serum (convalescent bovine serum) and the other four wells were used for detection of VIA-antibody in sera.For sensitization of the latex beads, 37.5 ml of 1% Latex beads (Polybead, 0.96 µm in diameter, Polyscience, Inc.) in carbonate-bicarbonate buffer solution (pH 9.6) and VIA antigen, the titer of which was 1:4 in AGD, were mixed thoroughly. The mixture was kept overnight at 4°C. The excess of VIA antigen was washed out with PBS (pH 7.3) three times. After the last washing, the latex beads were resuspended at a 0.2% concentration in same PBS containing 0.5% horse serum. Fifty microliters of a two-fold serial dilution of test serum was put in each well of a 96 well microplate (Round bottom), and then, 50 µl of 0.2% latex bead...