Infection with bovine leukemia virus belonging to group A or B-1 contributes more strongly to the development of enzootic bovine leukosis in young cattle than the presence of bovine lymphocyte antigen-DRB3 susceptibility alleles

TL;DR

This study shows that infection with specific bovine leukemia virus strains is a stronger factor in young cattle developing a certain disease than genetic susceptibility.

Contribution

The study reveals that BLV group A or B-1 infection is more influential than BoLA-DRB3 alleles in young cattle with enzootic bovine leukosis.

Findings

BLV group A or B-1 infection was more frequent in young cattle with EBL.

This effect was observed regardless of BoLA-DRB3 allele presence.

Infection with these BLV strains contributes more strongly to EBL in young cattle.

Abstract

In this study, we compared the effects of different bovine leukemia virus (BLV) strains and bovine lymphocyte antigen (BoLA)-DRB3 alleles in cattle with enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL) aged either <3 years or ≥3 years. The frequency of infection with BLV belonging to group A or B-1 in cattle aged <3 years with EBL was significantly higher than that in cattle aged ≥3 years, regardless of which BoLA-DRB3 allele was present. This suggests that infection with group A or B-1 BLV contributes more strongly to the development of EBL in young cattle than the presence of early-EBL-onset susceptibility BoLA-DRB3 alleles.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00705-024-06102-7.