EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF BVDV INFECTION IN CATTLE FARMS OF KHARKOV REGION, UKRAINE

Bovine viral diarrhea is a widespread infection of cattle caused by bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV),a member of the Pestivirus genus of the Flaviviridae family. The virus persists in the cattle population by a unique combination of transient and persistent infections. Persistently infected (PI)animals may succumb to mucosal disease, which is characterized by lesions in the gastrointestinal tract and its invariably lethal outcome. This study was focused on identification PI animals in cattle farms of Kharkov region, Ukraine. For this reason 1080 blood samples from three different farms were tested for presence BVDV specific antibody by ELISA and viral genetic materials by realtime RT-PCR. In this study 5 PI animals were detected in two farms. Following phylogenetic analysis in 5’-UTR (245 bp fragment) was used for the genetic typing of revealed BVDV isolates into subgenotypes. The genetic typing indicated that all 4 viruses from second farm were typed as BVDV-1b and all of them were absolutely identical in 5’-UTR. The virus from third farm typed as BVDV-1f.