Bubaline herpesvirus 1 associated with abortion in a Mediterranean water buffalo.

During routine analysis of water buffalo foetuses, one sample was positive for herpesvirus and negative to all the other abortive agents investigated. Sequencing of the herpesvirus glycoprotein E gene identified the virus as bubaline herpesvirus 1, showing few differences with the published sequences. This represents the first finding of bubaline herpesvirus in a water buffalo foetus associated with abortion.

Experimental infection of pregnant cows with noncytopathogenic bovine viral diarrhoea virus between days 26 and 50 postbreeding.

The effect of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) infection on early pregnant cows between 10 and 24 days after virus inoculation at day 26 of pregnancy was determined. Four cows were inoculated intravenously with either BVDV (treated, n=3) or growth medium (control, n=1). The treated cows were euthanized on either day 10, 17 or 24 post-infection and the control cow was euthanized on day 24 post-infection. The level of serum 2-5A synthetase increased in all of the three treated cows. Progesterone levels decreased to below 1.0 ng/ml between 10 and 22 days after inoculation in two of the three treated cows and the embryos/foetuses of two cows died. Therefore, BVDV may be a cause of early embryonic or feotal loss in early pregnant cows and serum 2-5A synthetase may be useful as an indicator of viral infection in cows.

Nucleotide sequence and construction of an infectious cDNA clone of an EMCV strain isolated from aborted swine fetus.

A full-length cDNA clone of an Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) strain (2887A) isolated from aborted swine fetus was constructed and sequenced. Sequence comparison showed more than 99% nucleotide and amino acid sequence identity with two other EMCV strains, EMCV-PV21 and -R. However, the 2887A genomic sequence showed only about 84% nucleotide identity and 96% amino acid identity with EMCV-B, -D and -PV2 variants. RNA synthesized by in vitro transcription of this cDNA clone was infectious upon transfection of BHK21 cells, as shown by cytopathic effects and identification by neutralization test, and by propagation of the virus released into the culture media. The transcript RNA led to the production of infectious particles despite the presence of two nongenomic nucleotide residues at the 5' end, the short poly(C) tract (C(10)TCTC(3)TC(10)), the short poly(A) tail (7A), and the presence of six nongenomic nucleotides at the 3' end. The rescued virus was also found to be highly pathogenic for mice by intra-peritoneal inoculation producing a fatal disease indistinguishable from that of wild-type virus. An important finding concerning the molecular basis of infectivity was that the in vitro synthesized EMCV RNA transcript is infectious, although it contains a very short poly(A). The availability of the infectious cDNA clone of the reproductive failure strain of EMCV should prove to be useful for studying the molecular basis of the pathogenicity of EMCV in pig.