Surveillance of bovine abortion: bovine leukemia virus as casual agent

• Grant number: 12/01033-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2012
• End date: March 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Claudia Del Fava
• Grantee: Claudia Del Fava
• Host Institution: Instituto Biológico (IB). Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Edviges Maristela Pituco ; Eliana Scarcelli Pinheiro

Abstract

The Laboratory of Anatomopathology of Instituto Biológico has done in the last two years, histopathological diagnosis in aborted bovine fetuses, finding in 73.5% (86/117) of the cases mononuclear and/or polymorphonuclear inflammatory infiltrate, showing the involvement of an infectious agent and proving the necessity of combination of sensitive and specific methods to conclude the causal agent. The casuistic of Instituto Biológico done in the last 20 years by it´s multidisciplinar team revealed that 70.0% of aborted fetuses submitted to virological and bacteriological analysis have inconclusive diagnosis, being Brucellosis the most prevalent disease. The Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) causes lymphocitosis and lymphossarcoma, and it´s prevalent in Brazilian herds, associated to the findings that the majority of aborted fetuses presents mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate, we performed a previous study and it was detected BLV proviral DNA by PCR in 18.2% (2/11) of fetuses (timus and spleen) negative for Brucellosis. These preliminary results enforce the research proposed, that aims to verify in aborted bovine fetuses negative to Brucellosis the occurrence of BLV by PCR and fetal serology, and correlating these findings with histopathology, fetal age and origin of the samples. The genomic sequencing of the BLV will be performed in order to verify the genetic polymorphism of the samples obtained. (AU)