Location: Animal Health Genomics
Project Number: 3040-32000-036-001-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 15, 2021
End Date: Dec 1, 2024
Objective:
The objective of this agreement is to evaluate bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) infection in calves.
Approach:
The ARS and the Cooperator will work together to test calf susceptibility to BVDV infection. This will be accomplished using two approaches. The first approach is to collect blood to test peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) ex vivo for permissivity to BVDV infection. In the second approach, the ARS and the Cooperator will perform a natural BVDV challenge study. The calves will be co-housed for 7 days in BSL-2 confinement with a calf that is persistently infected with BVDV. Virus transmission and replication in the upper respiratory tract of the calves will be monitored with nasal swab samples collected every 24 hours during the natural exposure challenge (days 1-7) and every three days until the end of the study (day 21). Seroconversion to BVDV will be monitored with blood samples collected prior to challenge (day 0), upon completion of the natural challenge exposure (day 7), and two weeks after the completion of the natural exposure challenge (day 21).
