Tabachnick W J, MacLachlan N J, Thompson L H, Hunt G J, Patton J F
Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1996 May;54(5):481-5. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1996.54.481.
Cattle bloods containing only polymerase chain reaction (PCR)--detectable bluetongue-10 viral nucleic acid, but as determined by virus isolation techniques, not bluetongue-10 virus, were incapable of infecting intrathoracically inoculated Culicoides variipennis sonorensis. These insects also failed to transmit bluetongue-10 virus when fed on sheep. Cattle whose blood contain only PCR-detectable bluetongue viral nucleic acid, but no infectious virus, are unlikely to play a role in the epidemiology of bluetongue. The biological significance of PCR-based detection assays and their effect on animal health regulations on the international trade of livestock and livestock germplasm is discussed. Bluetongue virus infection provides a very useful model with which to study arthropod-transmitted RNA virus infections of humans and other animals.
