PRESENCE OF BOVINE VIRAL DIARRHEA VIRUS IN LYMPHOID-CELL POPULATIONS OF PERSISTENTLY INFECTED CATTLE

Cattle infected in utero with bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) ofte n develop a lifelong persistent infection (PI). During this PI, BVDV i nfects many cell types including peripheral blood mononuclear cells (P BMNC). To define the lymphoid cell populations in which BVDV persists PBMNC subpopulations were separated using monoclonal antibodies to cel l surface markers. Separated cells were analysed by a sensitive PCR as say for BVDV, in conjunction with flow cytometry to identify antigen-c ontaining cells and with viral infectivity assays. The results indicat e that BVDV establishes a productive PI in monocytes and T cells beari ng the marker BoCD4, BoCD8 or gamma-delta T cell receptor. BVDV was no t detected in B cells as a productive nor a latent infection.