Properties of Bovine Virus Diarrhœa Virus

RECENTLY it has been shown 1 that a virus isolated from cattle with signs of ‘mucosal disease’ 2 is antigenically related to the virus of bovine virus diarrhœa 3 . In northern Sweden, a type of mucosal disease (‘Umeå disease’) was found to be accompanied or preceded by a respiratory disease. In paired serum samples from diseased animals increasing titres of antibodies were demonstrated against both bovine virus diarrhœa virus and para-influenza 3 virus 4 , but only para-influenza 3 virus was isolated 5 . The incidence of infections with bovine virus diarrhœa virus among Swedish cattle seems to be about 20 per cent as judged from the results of a serological survey in 1959–60 4 . In the present work the properties on which Cooper 6 bases his classification of animal viruses have been investigated for bovine virus diarrhœa virus.