Infectivity in sheep of blood lymphocytes from bovine leukemia virus-infected cows with different nuclear pocket prevalences.

The infectivity for the bovine leukemia virus (BLV) of bovine blood lymphocytes, with varying lymphocyte nuclear pocket (LNP) prevalence, was studied by intradermal injection of buffy coat leukocytes from cows into sheep. Thirty-five sheep were assigned to 3 groups of 9, 11, and 15, respectively, as recipients of blood leukocytes from individual cows as follows: 9 leukocyte donor cows included 3 BLV-seropositive cows with high (greater than or equal to 2.0%) LNP prevalence (group 1); 3 BLV-seropositive cows with low (less than 0.5%) LNP prevalence (group 2); and 3 BLV-seronegative cows with increased (greater than or equal to 0.5%) LNP prevalence (group 3). The 9 sheep in group 1 became BLV-seropositive by postinoculation day (PID) 57 as determined by the agar-gel immunodiffusion test; 2 of 11 sheep in group 2 became agar-gel immunodiffusion seropositive by PID 40; none of the 15 sheep of group 3 became seropositive by PID 92. Seemingly, there is a real difference in infectivity among BLV-seropositive cattle which is related to LNP prevalence, and seronegative cattle with increased LNP prevalence may be noninfectious, ie, were not carrying covert BLV virogene.