ABSTRACT
Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus is a
Lentivirus which can cause varieties of infectious
complications and induce remarkable losses to
dairy industry. Considering to the
probability of worldwide distribution of the
BIV infection, this study was conducted for the first
time in
Iran to determine of the status of
BIV infection in the Holstein
cattle and evaluate the associated findings. According to the results of the Nested-
PCR method in this study, 16.2% of 197 slaughtered Holstein
cattle in Meysam
abattoir of Tehran were infective with
BIV. Sequencing of the amplicons obtained from PBLs of the
cattle using gag-specific primers revealed that there was 98.7-98.9% homology between this field
strain and reference sequences of
BIV. The
infection rate of
cattle with enlarged heamal nodes was higher than the
animals without these lesions [0.01
BIV infection rate and age, sex, BCS, clinical problems or macroscopic lesions and enlarged lymph node as well as the anatomical situation of enlarged heamal nodes. Flow cytometric analysis showed that the relative frequency of CD8+s in the infected animals was significantly lower than the non-infected ones [0.01
leukocyte counts, relative frequencies of neutrophil, lymphocyte, CD4+, CD21+, monocyte, eosinophil, hemoglobin and PCV of the infected and non-infected groups. Lymphoid follicular hyperplasia- hypertrophia and in some cases depletion of lymphoid follicules in the lymph and heamal nodes were the main histopathological findings of the infected cattle. The results showed that the BIV infection rate of the surveyed Holstein cattle was relatively high