Experimental infection of cattle in early pregnancy with a cytopathic strain of bovine virus diarrhoea virus.

Nine pregnant heifers, in early gestation (63 to 107 days), were infected intranasally or in utero with cytopathic bovine virus diarrhoea virus (BVDV) and each dam seroconverted. All nine calves developed to full term; four were stillborn, of which one had seroconverted but virus was not recovered from their tissues. One of the five liveborn calves appeared to have seroconverted in utero to an adventitious BVDV infection in late pregnancy but the remaining four were not viraemic and showed a normal secondary antibody response to BVDV infection at about six months old. Thus, in contrast to results with noncytopathic virus there was no evidence that infection in utero with cytopathic virus could result in a persistent viraemia or immunotolerance. It is suggested that cells able to support a persistent viraemia with cytopathic virus may not be developed in the young fetus.