Kinetic Study of BLV Infectivity in BLV Susceptible and Resistant Cattle in Japan from 2017 to 2019

Abstract

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is the causative agent of enzootic bovine leukosis. Polymorphism in bovine lymphocyte antigen <i>(BoLA)-DRB3</i> alleles is related to susceptibility to BLV proviral load (PVL), which is a useful index for estimating disease progression and transmission risk. However, whether differential <i>BoLA-DRB3</i> affects BLV infectivity remains unknown. In a three-year follow-up investigation using a luminescence syncytium induction assay for evaluating BLV infectivity, we visualized and evaluated the kinetics of BLV infectivity in cattle with susceptible, resistant and neutral <i>BoLA-DRB3</i> alleles which were selected from 179 cattle. Susceptible cattle showed stronger BLV infectivity than both resistant and neutral cattle. The order of intensity of BLV infectivity was as follows: susceptible cattle > neutral cattle > resistant cattle. BLV infectivity showed strong positive correlation with PVL at each testing point. BLV-infected susceptible cattle were found to be at higher risk of horizontal transmission, as they had strong infectivity and high PVL, whereas BLV-infected resistant cattle were low risk of BLV transmission owing to weak BLV infection and low PVL. Thus, this is the first study to demonstrate that the <i>BoLA-DRB3</i> polymorphism is associated with BLV infection.