The prevalence of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV) infections in cattle and existence of persistently infected cattle in the Trakya region

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of BVDV infection and, existence of persistently infected (PI) cattle in the Trakya region. In total, 260 samples of leukocytes were isolated from dairy cows (65 samples) and breeding bulls (65 samples) and also from cows and bulls in slaughterhouses (65 samples from each). After two blind passages in foetal bovine kidney (FBK) cell culture, they were screened for BVDV antigen with indirect immunoperoxidase labelling. For detecting PI cattle among BVDV positive live animals, new samples were taken and labelled, approximately two months after the first sampling. It was found that a total of 35 (13.46%) cattle (16 live and 19 slaughtered) were positive for the BVDV antigen. BVDV antigens were also detected in 4 of the 16 leukocyte samples, which were taken from 16 BVDV positive animals.