Short communication: Transmission of border disease virus to seronegative cows inseminated with infected semen

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the transmissibility of border disease (BD) virus to seronegative cows via artificial insemination with cryopreserved semen from a bull persistently infected with BD virus. Five pestivirus naive cows were inseminated with BD virus-infected semen. Blood was collected for detection of pestivirus antibody by means of an ELISA on day 0 (day of insemination) and then every 7 days until day 56, at which time a serum neutralisation test (SNT) for differentiation of BD and BVD virus was carried out. Seroconversion was first noticed in two cows on day 14, in two cows on day 21 and in one cow on day 28. In the SNT, all cows had distinctly positive titres against BD virus. Therefore, BD virus is readily transmitted by infected semen, but none of the cows conceived, most likely because of poor semen quality.

Insemination with border disease virus-infected semen results in seroconversion in cows but not persistent infection in fetuses

“…The cows were kept in quarantine during the entire study period and were acclimatised for 10 days. All cows underwent oestrus synchronisation and were artificially inseminated twice 24 h apart (day 0 and day 1 of the infection phase) using semen from a young bull persistently infected with BDV [ 10 , 11 ]. The genome of the virus causing persistent infection (Sub-Genotype BDSwiss) has since been sequenced [ 16 ].…”

“…The semen had a high virus titre at 2.51 × 10 8 TCID 50 (50% tissue culture infective dose)/ml and 1.44 × 10 6 TCID 50 /10 6 sperm cells. Because cows inseminated with infected semen failed to become pregnant in an earlier study [ 11 ], the cows of the present study were concurrently inseminated with virus-free semen from a bull of the Eringer breed with proven fertility. The goal was to transmit BDV with the semen from the persistently-infected bull and to impregnate the cows with the semen from the fertile bull.…”

“…Transmission of BDV from a persistently-infected calf to a seronegative heifer in early pregnancy through direct contact was recently reported [ 10 ]. Seroconversion in cows was also observed after artificial insemination with semen from a bull persistently infected with BDV even though the cows failed to conceive because of poor semen quality [ 11 ]. Twice-daily monitoring showed no abnormalities in demeanour, appetite and rectal temperature of the cows [ 11 ] but temperature spikes of short duration may have been missed.…”

“…Seroconversion in cows was also observed after artificial insemination with semen from a bull persistently infected with BDV even though the cows failed to conceive because of poor semen quality [ 11 ]. Twice-daily monitoring showed no abnormalities in demeanour, appetite and rectal temperature of the cows [ 11 ] but temperature spikes of short duration may have been missed. Calves had spikes in intraruminal temperature as early as 2 days after intranasal infection with bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) virus [ 12 ].…”

A Mouse Model of Zika Virus Sexual Transmission and Vaginal Viral Replication

“…A mouse model has been reported for TGT of West Nile virus (Burke et al, 2004), Japanese encephalitis virus has been transmitted to sows by artificial insemination (Habu et al, 1977), and naturally occurring TGT is seen with pestiviral flaviviruses including border disease virus in sheep (Braun et al, 2015), bovine viral diarrhea virus (Bielanski et al, 2013), and classical swine fever virus (Floegel et al, 2000). A recent study demonstrated vaginal ZIKV replication in C57BL/6 mice and TGT in mice with interferon (IFN) pathway mutations (Yockey et al, 2016).…”