Abstract
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a retroviral infection that disrupts the immune function of infected animals. It is widespread among U.S. dairy cattle. In this pilot study, the average total IgA and IgM concentrations in milk, saliva, and serum samples from BLV ELISA-positive (ELISA+) dairy cows were compared against samples from BLV ELISA-negative (ELISA−) cows using the Kruskal–Wallis test (with ties). The results from ELISA+ cows were also stratified by lymphocyte count (LC) and proviral load (PVL). In milk and saliva from ELISA+ cows, the average total IgA and IgM concentrations were decreased compared to ELISA− cows, although this was only statistically significant for saliva IgM in cows with low PVL (p = 0.0424). Numerically, the average total IgA concentrations were 33.6% lower in milk and 23.7% lower in saliva, and the average total IgM concentrations were 42.4% lower in milk and 15.5% lower in saliva. No significant differences were observed in the total serum IgA concentrations, regardless of PVL and LC. The total serum IgM from ELISA+ cows was significantly decreased (p = 0.0223), with the largest decreases occurring in the highest PVL and LC subgroups. This pilot study is a first step in investigating the impact of BLV on mucosal immunity and will require further exploration in each of the various stages of disease progression.
Highlights
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is an oncogenic deltaretrovirus of cattle
ELISA+ cows were further subcategorized into specific groups (BLV profiles) based on lymphocyte count (LC) and proviral load (PVL) counts
Compared to ELISA− cows, IgA concentrations were 33.6% lower in ELISA+ cows (p = 0.3282). This decrease was greatest in ELISA+ cows with nLC and LPVL profiles compared with ELISA− cows, it did not reach statistical significance
Summary
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is an oncogenic deltaretrovirus of cattle. Infected animals may develop lymphosarcoma (about 5%) and/or lymphocytosis (about 30%) [1], and many types of immune dysfunction [2,3]. BLV is primarily transmitted horizontally by the transfer of infected cells. BLV predominantly infects B-lymphocytes, and the immortalization and clonal expansion [7] of these cells results in the lymphocytosis that develops in approximately one third of infected cattle. There is mounting evidence that quantifying BLV proviral DNA (proviral load, PVL) may be useful as an indicator of infectivity and disease progression [9,10,11,12,13], as with the closely related human T-cell lymphotrophic virus (HTLV-1) [14,15,16]
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