Infectivity of pestivirus following persistence of acute infection.

Margaret E. Collins , Judith Heaney , Carole J. Thomas , Joe Brownlie

Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is an endemic pathogen worldwide and eradication strategies focus on identification and removal of persistently infected (PI) animals arising after infection. Despite this, acute infections with BVDV can persist for months or years after the removal of the PI source despite repeated screening for PIs and tight biosecurity measures. Recent evidence for a prolonged duration of viraemia in the testicles of bulls following acute BVDV infection suggests the possibility of a form of chronic persistence that may more closely resemble the persistence strategies of hepatitis C virus (HCV).To investigate the potential for virus transmission from infected and recovered cattle to virus naïve hosts we established an acute infection of 5 BVDV naïve calves and monitored animals over 129 days. Infectious BVDV was detected in white blood cells between days 3 and 7 post-challenge. The animals seroconverted by day 21 post-infection and subsequently were apparently immune and free from infectious virus and viral antigen.

Mots clés: BVDV; Pestivirus; Acute infection; Long term persistence; Transmission; Infectivity

Margaret E. Collins, Judith Heaney, Carole J. Thomas, Joe Brownlie. Infectivity of pestivirus following persistence of acute infection.. Veterinary Microbiology, 2009, 138 (3-4), pp.289. ⟨10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.04.022⟩. ⟨hal-00514612⟩