Visualizing bovine leukemia virus (BLV)-infected cells and measuring BLV proviral loads in the milk of BLV seropositive dams.

ABSTRACT: Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infects cattle and causes serious problems for the cattle industry, worldwide. Vertical transmission of BLV occurs via in utero infection and ingestion of infected milk and colostrum. The aim of this study was to clarify whether milk is a risk factor in BLV transmission by quantifying proviral loads in milk and visualizing the infectivity of milk. We collected blood and milk from 48 dams (46 BLV seropositive dams and 2 seronegative dams) from seven farms in Japan and detected the BLV provirus in 43 blood samples (89.6%) but only 22 milk samples (45.8%) using BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR-2. Although the proviral loads in the milk tended to be lower, a positive correlation was firstly found between the proviral loads with blood and milk. Furthermore, the infectivity of milk ce

SUBMITTER: Watanuki S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6884895 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature