Pilot implementation of a newly developed bovine leukemia virus control program on 11 Alberta dairy farms

Kuczewski, Alessa; Mason, Steve; Orsel, Karin; Meer, Frank van der

doi:10.3168/jds.2020-19251

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 24 publications

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“…Transmission of BLV is thought to occur through the introduction of an infected lymphocyte to the bloodstream of the uninfected animal through milk/colostrum and blood-borne routes, including biting flies and iatrogenic means such as shared needles and rectal palpation sleeves [ 6 ]. However, the use of best management practices has proven to reduce within-herd prevalence of BLV significantly [ 7 ]. Vertical transmission, in utero, during parturition, or postnatally via colostrum administration, has also been found to contribute to 4–18% of new BLV infections [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing Viral Transmission and Evolution of Bovine Leukemia Virus through Long Read Oxford Nanopore Sequencing of the Proviral Genome

et al. 2021

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Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) causes Enzootic Bovine Leukosis (EBL), a persistent life-long disease resulting in immune dysfunction and shortened lifespan in infected cattle, severely impacting the profitability of the US dairy industry. Our group has found that 94% of dairy farms in the United States are infected with BLV with an average in-herd prevalence of 46%. This is partly due to the lack of clinical presentation during the early stages of primary infection and the elusive nature of BLV transmission. This study sought to validate a near-complete genomic sequencing approach for reliability and accuracy before determining its efficacy in characterizing the sequence identity of BLV proviral genomes collected from a pilot study made up of 14 animals from one commercial dairy herd. These BLV-infected animals were comprised of seven adult dam/daughter pairs that tested positive by ELISA and qPCR. The results demonstrate sequence identity or divergence of the BLV genome from the same samples tested in two independent laboratories, suggesting both vertical and horizontal transmission in this dairy herd. This study supports the use of Oxford Nanopore sequencing for the identification of viral SNPs that can be used for retrospective genetic contact tracing of BLV transmission.

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