Knott I, Weynants V, Walravens K, van der Poel W H, Kramps J A, Letesson J J
Lab. Immunologie, URBM, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur, Belgium.
Arch Virol. 1998;143(6):1119-28. doi: 10.1007/s007050050360.
The immune response of calves was studied following infection with non-cell-passaged Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV). Two groups of 6 specific pathogen free (SPF) calves were housed in separate isolation rooms. One group was inoculated intranasally with a non-cell-passaged BRSV strain and the control group was mock-infected. A BRSV specific antibody response was observed for all the BRSV infected calves. These antibodies were shown to have neutralizing activity. No lymphocyte proliferation response was detected in the mock-infected group whereas three animals in the infected group were positive three weeks after the infection. All BRSV-infected calves, except one, produced interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) one week post-infection and IFN-gamma was observed in all six infected calves after three weeks. The control group showed no IFN-gamma synthesis. In spite of the limits of the BRSV infection model, humoral and cellular immune responses were actively developed by all the calves against this pathogen.
