Evaluation of bovine viral diarrhea virus in New World camelids.

Objective—To determine the effect of experimental infection with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) on llamas and their fetuses, evaluate seroprevalence of BVDV in llamas and alpacas, and genetically characterize BVDV isolates from llamas. Design—Prospective study. Animals—4 pregnant llamas for the experimental infection study and 223 llamas and alpacas for the seroprevalence study. Procedure—Llamas (seronegative to BVDV) were experimentally infected with a llama isolate of BVDV via nasal aerosolization. After inoculation, blood samples were collected every other day for 2 weeks; blood samples were obtained from crias at birth and monthly thereafter. For the seroprevalence study, blood was collected from a convenience sample of 223 camelids. Isolates of BVDV were characterized by reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction assay. Results—Viremia and BVDV-specific antibody response were detected in the experimentally infected llamas, but no signs of disease were observed. No virus was detected in the ...