Nine isolates from pigs persistently infected with a recent Italian isolate of swine vesicular disease (SVD) virus, ITL/9/93, were collected sequentially over 121 days and were characterized antigenically and biochemically. There was an accumulation of amino acid (aa) substitutions in the capsid proteins throughout the carrier state that could be correlated with alterations in antigenicity in virus isolates collected late stage in infection. The aa substitutions detected mainly occurred in VP1 and antigenic changes were detected in late isolates both at antigenic site 1, resulting in loss of binding of Mab 4GO7, and at a closely located site which has not yet been named, recognized by Mab C29. In further experiments groups of pigs were exposed to a range of SVD viruses, but no virus was isolated beyond 16 days post infection (dpi) nor viral RNA detected beyond 42 dpi. Attempts to transfer infection to sentinel pigs introduced some time after initial infection of the original pigs were largely unsuccessful. The carrier state was established in only one out of five experimental infections of pigs with SVD virus and can therefore be considered a rare sequel to infection with SVD virus and is of limited significance in the epidemiology of the disease.