One hundred and thirty-nine bovine sera collected in Senegal in 1968 and 1969, before the human pandemic of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC), and 145 sera collected in 1977, seven years after the introduction of AHC, were tested for virus neutralizing (VN) titers against enterovirus 70 (EV70) in neutralization tests. Positive rates of VN titers (1:16) were fairly constant (about 40%) in 1968 and 1969 but the proportion of positives from the 1977 collection was significantly higher (61%). The proportion of Ghanaian bovine sera positive in 1977 (39%) was comparable with those collected earlier in Senegal but the proportion was lower in sera of calves (7%). Similar studies were performed on sheep sera collected in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969 in Senegal. The proportions positive and the geometric mean titers (GMTs) peaked in alternate years: the proportions were 43% and 54% in 1966 and 1968 but dropped to 12% and 5% in 1967 and 1969, respectively. The prevalence rate for Ghanaian sheep sera in 1977 was comparable to the earlier figures in Senegal. The prevalence of VN (83%) and the GMT (1:27.28) in swine sera in Ghana in 1977 were much higher than those seen in chickens and dogs. However, 87 sera of wild monkeys caught in Senegal after 1970 were negative in neutralization tests. The VN substance detected in these domestic animals was found to be 2-mercaptoethanol sensitive; hence it is considered to belong to IgM. The results seem to favor the hypothesis that enterovirus type 70 (EV70) evolved from an animal enterovirus which shares a common antigen with EV70.

Human sera were collected in Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Liberia, Gabon and Togo during the pre-epidemic period of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) from 1965 to 1969, and tested for virus neutralizing (VN) antibody to enterovirus type 70 (EV70). Of these, 1109 (91%) were antibody negative (less than equal to 1:4), 116 (9%) neutralized at a dilution of 1:8 or over, and 45 (4%) at dilutions of at least 1:16. The distribution pattern is not significantly different from that of sera collected from Kenya in 1967 or from army recruits in the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia in the 1960s. Sera collected during the post-epidemic period (1970 to 1977) in Senegal, Sierra Leone, Mali, Upper Volta, Chad, Niger and Gabon were also examined; 1573 (68%) were VN antibody negative (less than or equal to 1:4), while 733 (32%) and 433 (19%) had titers of 1:8 or greater and 1:16 or over, respectively. There is a significant difference in distribution between pre- and post-epidemic antibody titers (p less than 0.001), although the incidence of AHC was lower in these countries than in Ghana and Southeast Asia. The prevalence of VN antibodies tends to be lower in the dry, hot inland areas and thus humid coastal monsoonal climates and dense populations seem to favor the spread of AHC.

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Several researches have been carried out on the inhibitory action of oleic and other homologous long-chain higher fatty acids on tubercle bacilli (