Fetal and adult bovine interferon production during bovine viral diarrhea virus infection

Abstract

Levels of interferon in adult bovine serum and in fetal bovine serum and tissues were examined during the course of transplacental bovine viral diarrhea virus infection. The cows produced circulating interferon between 2 and 9 days after viral inoculation, with mean peak levels in the serum on day 4. Interferon could be routinely detected in fetal tissues (e.g., thymus, spleen, and kidney) between days 4 and 21 after viral inoculation of the cows at 149 to 150 days of gestation (mid-second trimester) and in fetal serum from day 13 through day 21. Interferon was also detectable in the serum and tissues of fetuses from dams infected at day 95 of gestation (the beginning of the second trimester). In general, no differences were found between the ability of the adult and fetus to produce interferon. Fetal lamb kidney cells were more sensitive to the antiviral effects of bovine interferon than were fetal bovine kidney cells. The antiviral substance from the fetal and adult animals was characterized as interferon by standard criteria.

Primary Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus Infection in Calves Following Direct Contact with a Persistently Viraemic Calf

“…The present study shows that a natural infection with BVDV induces production of interferon (Fig.4). This finding tallies with the results of RINALDO et al (1976) but differs from those of GILLESPIE et al (1986). The former authors detected circulating interferon between 2 and 9 days after intravenous BVDV inoculation, with a mean peak level in serum on day 4, whereas the latter authors usually found that BVDV failed to induce increased interferon titres in serum.…”

Macrophages infected with cytopathic bovine viral diarrhea virus release a factor(s) capable of priming uninfected macrophages for activation-induced apoptosis

“…Thus, rapid induction of IFN by the cp biotype could be one reason that this virus fails to establish a persistent infection in the fetus. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that infection of pregnant cows with cp BVDV during a period of gestation during which an ncp biotype can establish persistent infection leads to IFN induction both in the cow and in the fetus (23). For the ncp biotype an induction of IFN in vivo has not been demonstrated.…”

Bovine interferon: Its biology and application in veterinary medicine

“…Numerous viruses have been reported to induce IFN in cattle. These include Newcastle disease virus, vaccinia virus, bovine parainfluenza-3 virus, bovine respiratory syncytial virus, bovine adenovirus, bovine enterovirus (strain LCR-4), BVDV, bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) (s. IBRV/IPV) and bovine rotaviruses [20,34,35,36,44,67,75,88,91,92,94,101,110,113,118,126]. However, the role of IFN in limiting virus replication has not been established for most of these infections with the exception of BHV-1.…”

“…Regarding in vitro antiviral potency of BolFNs, many discrepancies are apparent. This applies both to the sensitivity of the cells to the antiviral effect, and to the sensitivity of the various viruses in any given cell system [4,8,29,38,42,44,52,[67][68][69]87,88,96,104,107,116]. However, as no standard procedure for the IFN assay has been followed by the various groups and no standard reference IFN was employed in their investigations, a direct comparison is not possible at present.…”

“…However, in this context it should perhaps be reiterated that the properties of the challenge virus may influence the assay in different cell systems, as well as the cellular specificity of the IFN [83]. Rinaldo et al [88] reported that in vivo BVDV-induced IFN had higher activity in ovine cells than in bovine, whereas rBoIFN-a has an activity in ovine and caprine cells which is slightly inferior to that seen in bovine cells [4].…”