Specific passive immunity reduces the excretion of glycoprotein E-negativebovine herpesvirus type 1 vaccine strain in calves

We investigated the excretion of either a glycoprotein E (gE)-negative bovi ne herpesvirus type 1 (BHV1) vaccine strain or a conventional modified-live vaccine strain in both naive and passively immunised calves. The replicati on of gE-negative strain was considerably reduced in the maternally immunis ed calves, in comparison with the non-immune calves. On the other hand, the excretion of the gE-positive conventional vaccine strain was not reduced a nd even seemed to be prolonged in the presence of maternal antibodies. Thes e results suggest that BHV1 gE may play a role in virus survival in the pre sence of antibodies. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.