Immune recognition and function of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus envelope proteins

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Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) is highly prevalent among cattle herds in Canada. This circulation of BVDV continues to cause significant economic losses in both dairy and beef herds. In infected pregnant cows, the fetus contracts the virus transplacentally during the first trimester of gestation. This calf will become persistently infected (PI), and will not mount an immune response against this virus. The resulting calf is BVDV immunotolerant at birth and will shed large quantities of BVDV throughout its life. These PI animals are considered the main source of new BVDV infections and continued virus circulation. To better understand how these viruses evolve and persist in their host it is essential to study the virus natural antigenic variability. These antigenic changes exhibited by the virus over time are determined by the way hosts and pathogens interact. We have used these PIs to study virus inter- and intra-host variability which will be used to establish evolutionary models that can infer BVDV evolution. The high mutation rate of BVDV is posing challenges for both the host immune response and the researcher that aims to develop vaccines to prevent infections with these pathogens.