Transplacental transmission of Bluetongue virus serotype 1 and serotype 8 in sheep: virological and pathological findings

The Bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8) strain, which emerged in Europe in 2006, had an unusually high ability to cause foetal infection in pregnant ruminants. Other serotypes of BTV had already been present in Europe for more than a decade, but transplacental transmission of these strains had never...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-12, Vol.8 (12), p.e81429-e81429
Main Authors: van der Sluijs, Mirjam T W, Schroer-Joosten, Dianne P H, Fid-Fourkour, Aicha, Vrijenhoek, Mieke P, Debyser, Isolde, Moulin, Véronique, Moormann, Rob J M, de Smit, Abraham J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bluetongue
Bluetongue - transmission
Bluetongue virus - classification
Cattle
Cells (Biology)
Central nervous system
Comparative analysis
Eggs
Encephalopathy
ewes
Female
Fetuses
Gliosis
Health aspects
Hydranencephaly
Immunization
Incidence
induced congenital encephalopathies
Infection
Infections
Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical
Mammalian cells
Meningitis
Neuropil
orbivirus
Ovis aries
Pathology
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications, Infectious - epidemiology
Pregnancy Complications, Infectious - virology
reassortment
responses
sequence
Serotypes
Serotyping
Sheep
Sheep, Domestic
strains
Strains (organisms)
vaccine virus
Vaccines
Viremia
Viruses
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8) strain, which emerged in Europe in 2006, had an unusually high ability to cause foetal infection in pregnant ruminants. Other serotypes of BTV had already been present in Europe for more than a decade, but transplacental transmission of these strains had never been demonstrated. To determine whether transplacental transmission is a unique feature of BTV-8 we compared the incidence and pathological consequences of transplacental transmission of BTV-8 to that of BTV-1. Nine pregnant ewes were infected with either BTV-8 or BTV-1. The BTV strains used for the infection were field strains isolated on embryonated chicken eggs and passaged twice on mammalian cells. Blood samples were taken to monitor the viraemia in the ewes. Four weeks after the infection, the foetuses were examined for pathological changes and for the presence of BTV. BTV-8 could be demonstrated in 12 foetuses (43%) from 5 ewes (56%). %). BTV-1 was detected in 14 foetuses (82%) from 6 ewes (67%). Pathological changes were mainly found in the central nervous system. In the BTV-8 group, lympho-histiocytic infiltrates, gliosis and slight vacuolation of the neuropil were found. BTV-1 infection induced a severe necrotizing encephalopathy and severe meningitis, with macroscopic hydranencephaly or porencephaly in 8 foetuses. In our experimental setting, using low passaged virus strains, BTV-1 was able to induce transplacental transmission to a higher incidence compared to BTV-8, causing more severe pathology.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0081429