Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Ruminant Diseases and Immunology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #325663
Title: Comparison of ‘HoBi’-like viral populations among persistent infected calves generated under experimental conditions and to inoculum virus

Author
item WEBER, M - Federal University Of Rio Grande Do Sul
item BAUERMANN, F - Universidade Federal De Santa Maria
item Bayles, Darrell
item CANAL, C - Federal University Of Rio Grande Do Sul
item Neill, John
item Ridpath, Julia

Submitted to: Virology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/29/2016
Publication Date: 3/21/2016
Citation: Weber, M.N., Bauermann, F.V., Bayles, D.O., Canal, C.W., Neill, J.D., Ridpath, J.F. 2016. Comparison of ‘HoBi’-like viral populations among persistent infected calves generated under experimental conditions and to inoculum virus. Virology. 492:225-231. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2016.03.001.

Interpretive Summary: Pestiviruses are a group of viruses that infect domestic cattle, swine, sheep, goats and a number of wildlife species. A new member of this group, referred to as HoBi-like viruses, has recently been found in cattle suffering from respiratory disease and reproductive problems. Similar to other pestiviruses, HoBi-like viruses are able to infect fetuses and cause a variety of defects in them including incurable life long infections (persistent infection). During persistent infections a number of variants of the original infecting virus are generated. This manuscript details the detection and determination of proportion of these variants. The information generated indicated that the type and proportion of variants differ among persistently infected animals, even if they arise following infection with the same virus. Such animal to animal variation suggests that the virus and the host interact in a manner that is unique in each animal. Understanding the nature of this interaction helps us to understand how the virus impacts the functions of the immune system which, in turn, could lead to the development of biologics that limit or reverse the damage caused by these viruses.

Technical Abstract: Like other members from the Pestivirus genus, ‘HoBi’-like pestiviruses cause economic losses for cattle producers due to both acute and persistent infections. Pestivirus exist as quasispecies (swarms of individual viruses) in persistently infected (PI) animals leading to viral populations that are made up of variants that differ widely in number and diversity. In the present study the number and genetic diversity of viral variants in the populations circulating in PI animals was compared. The sequence of the region coding for the viral glycoproteins E1/E2 of variants within the swarms of viruses present in four PI calves and the two viral inoculums used to generate them were compared. Differences in the genetic composition of the viral swarms were observed suggesting that host factors can play a role in genetic variations among PIs. Moreover, PIs generated with the same inoculum showed amino acid substitutions in similar sites of the polyprotein, even in serum from PIs with different quasispecies composition, reinforcing that some specific sites in E2 are important for host adaptation.