Immune responses of goats persistently infected with caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus.
Eight cesarean-derived goat kids were inoculated with caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV), and proliferative responses of their peripheral blood mononuclear cells to mitogens and CAEV antigen were monitored for 9 months. Antibody specific for CAEV was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Five cesarean-derived noninfected goats were tested simultaneously. Significant differences between the infected and control mononuclear cell proliferation reactions to CAEV began 14 days post-inoculation and continued in a fluctuant manner until 134 days post-inoculation. The magnitude of the proliferative reaction steadily increased in infected goats until the end of the experiment at 271 days post-inoculation. Responses to mitogens were not significantly different between infected and control goats. Virus-inoculated goats produced CAEV-specific antibody that reached a maximum level between 49 and 77 days post-inoculation and then declined to lower levels through 271 days post-inoculation. The virus-inoculated goats developed mild but characteristic clinical evidence of caprine arthritis-encephalitis, and CAEV was reisolated from four goats at 286 days post-inoculation. The five control goats developed neither an anti-CAEV immune response nor clinical disease, and CAEV could not be reisolated from them.
D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D001170:Arthritis, Infectious / Q000382:microbiology; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006041:Goats / Q000276:immunology*; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D011859:Radiography; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000276:immunology*