Physicochemical transformation of milk components and release of foot-and-mouth disease virus.

Abstract

Possible mechanisms for protective roles of milk components on foot-and-mouth disease virus present in the milk of infected cows were examined. Light scattering bands collected from Ficoll-sucrose gradient fractions of skim-milk contained membrane-limited structures but these were non-infectious for bovine kidney cells. Infectivity titres in buttermilk higher than those of the original cream or butter suggested association of virus with milk fat globules. Increased infectivity titres in skim-milk after treatment with SDS suggested release of virus particles from dissociated casein micelle subunits. Chelating agents, de-emulsifying agents and trypsin, which alter the structure of the individual milk components casein, lipid and milk fat globule membrane were without effect on infectivity titres.