Immunologic response of bovine fetus to bovine viral diarrhea virus
Braun, R.K.; Osburn, B.I.; Kendrick, J.W.
American Journal of Veterinary Research 34(9): 1127-1132
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9645 PMID: 4747033 Document Number: 67577
Twelve bovine fetuses at different stages of development were inoculated with the virus. Morphological examinations indicated precocious lymphoid hyperplasia with plasma cells resulting from the antigenic stimulation. Serum samples from the infected fetuses contained higher IgM and IgG concentrations than those from newborn calves not fed colostrum. The fetuses were capable of producing serum-neutralizing (SN) antibodies to the virus by the 200th day of gestation. Neutralizing antibodies were in vitreous humour and allantoic and amniotic fluids. Virus was isolated from brain, lung, spleen, placenta, vitreous humour and allantoic fluid up to 56 days after inoculation and as late as 170 days after inoculation from amniotic fluid. Virus was isolated from spleen and placenta of a fetus with a SN antibody in excess of 1:65000. The presence of SN antibody, however, was associated with a failure to recover virus from fetal tissue.