An immunoscreening strategy was used to isolate a cDNA clone encoding the binding domain for the external glycoprotein gp51 of the bovine leukemia virus (BLV). Three recombinant phages demonstrating BLV binding activity and containing 2.3-kbp cDNA inserts with identical nucleotide sequences were isolated from a lambda gt11 cDNA library of bovine kidney cells (MDBK). One clone, BLVRcp1, hybridiz...

In situ PCR was developed for the detection of proviral DNA of bovine leukaemia virus in paraffin embedded tissues, tissue smears of experimentally inoculated sheep, as well in peripheral blood leukocytes of naturally infected cattle. The liver, spleen, lung, heart, kidney, and lymph node were collected from two infected sheep, which died or were euthanized due to lymphosarcoma and persistent l...

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is an oncogenic retrovirus associated with B-cell lymphocytosis, leukemia, and lymphosarcoma in the ovine and bovine species. We have recently reported that in sheep, BLV protects the total population of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from ex vivo spontaneous apoptosis. This global decrease in the apoptosis rates resulted from both direct and indirect mec...

bovine leukemia virus (blv) is a retrovirus causing a chronic leukemia/lymphoma in cattle in many countries around the world. screening for antibodies by elisa has been the primary means of detecting the presence of this virus. it is not yet known if this assay will detect antibodies in all cattle during a concomitant bovine leukemia virus infection. the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) of the t...

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is estimated to infect over 83% of dairy herds and over 40% of all dairy cows in the United States. While, BLV only causes leukemia in a small proportion of animals, research indicates that BLV+ cattle exhibit reduced milk production and longevity that is distinct from lymphoma development. It is hypothesized that BLV negatively affects production by interfering with...

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a retrovirus responsible for lymphoproliferative disorders in cattle. Although infections of BLV in animals are well known, little is known about its capacity to infect humans. This study investigated the presence of anti-BLV antibodies and BLV proviruses in human and cattle samples. An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect anti-BL...

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is highly endemic in many countries, including Iraq, and it impacts the beef and dairy industries. The current study sought to determine the percentage of BLV infection and persistent lymphocytosis (PL) in cattle in central Iraq. Hematological, serological, and molecular observations in cross breeds and local breeds of Iraqi cattle naturally infected with BLV were co...

In a previous report, we had indicated that in a sheep model, the expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha was closely associated with disease progression in sheep experimentally infected with bovine leukemia virus (BLV). However, individual variabilities are observed in these responses in BLV-infected animals. To attempt to identify genetic factors promoting the progression to BLV-induc...

Retroviruses are not expected to encode miRNAs because of the potential problem of self-cleavage of their genomic RNAs. This assumption has recently been challenged by experiments showing that bovine leukemia virus (BLV) encodes miRNAs from intragenomic Pol III promoters. The BLV miRNAs are abundantly expressed in B-cell tumors in the absence of significant levels of genomic and subgenomic vira...

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) and human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) are closely related d-retroviruses that induce hematological diseases. HTLV-1 infects about 15 million people worldwide, mainly in subtropical areas. HTLV-1 induces a wide spectrum of diseases (e.g., HTLV-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis) and leukemia/lymphoma (adult T-cell leukemia). Bovine leukemia vi...