title: Bovine leukemia virus becomes established in dairy herds before the first lactation.
abstract: In this work, we studied seven groups of pregnant heifers from a consortium of dairy farms heavily infected with bovine leukemia virus (BLV). ELISA testing showed that the seroprevalence ranges of BLV in heifers between 36.1 and 66.5 %. No significant differences in proviral load were found when comparing heifers with adult cattle. Before their first delivery, more than 9.8 % of heifers show a high proviral load. Because BLV infection can occur during the first two years of life, the rationale of any strategy should be to take action as early as possible after birth.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Virus Adventicios, Instituto de Virología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), INTA, Nicolás Repetto y De los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ramiro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Merlini
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Virus Adventicios, Instituto de Virología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), INTA, Nicolás Repetto y De los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina. gutierrez.geronimo@inta.gob.ar.
authors.forename: Gerónimo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Virus Adventicios, Instituto de Virología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), INTA, Nicolás Repetto y De los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Virus Adventicios, Instituto de Virología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), INTA, Nicolás Repetto y De los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Juan Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Jaworski
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Genética. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), INTA, Nicolás Repetto y De los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Carignano
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Genética. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), INTA, Nicolás Repetto y De los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poli
authors.affiliation: Molecular and Cellular Epigenetics (GIGA) and Molecular Biology (Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech), University of Liège (ULg), 4000, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Willems
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Virus Adventicios, Instituto de Virología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), INTA, Nicolás Repetto y De los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Karina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Trono
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D002417:Cattle; D016583:Enzootic Bovine Leukosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D001909:Leukemia Virus, Bovine / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011533:Proviruses / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral
keywords: BLV; Heifers; Proviral load; Seroprevalence