Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus: Immunochemical Characterization and Serological Survey

1 Institute of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department of Virology, Veterinary Faculty, State University of Utrecht, Utrecht 2 Organon Teknika BV, Boxtel, The Netherlands and 3 American Bioresearch, Milton, Tennessee 37118, U.S.A. Bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) was purified by isodensity centrifugation; viral activities were monitored in gradient fractions using the reverse transcriptase assay and a p26-specific monoclonal antibody ELISA. In the coincident peak fractions (density about 1.17 g/ml) proteins with M r values of 26K, 17K, 53K, 14K and 100K (with decreasing intensity) were detected by Western blotting using serum of a calf after experimental BIV infection. When 957 randomly collected cattle sera from The Netherlands were tested by indirect immunofluorescence and confirmed using Western blot and/or radioimmunoprecipitation, 1.4% appeared seropositive. Thus BIV infection is not uncommon in one European cattle population. Received 24 May 1991; accepted 21 August 1991.