Transmission of Bovine Leukemia Virus By Rectal Palpation

Control and Epidemiologic Studies

Abstract

Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV), a C-type retrovirus, is horizontally spread in cattle by infected lymphocytes.[1] Infection with the BLV is lifelong.

Several routine management procedures have been implicated in the transmission of BLV, especially manual dehoming and use of contaminated needles.[2,3) There are both questions and concern regarding the probability of transmitting BLV infections in cattle during rectal palpation.[4) This concern seems especially pertinent since almost all breeding-age cattle receive multiple rectal examinations to evaluate the reproductive tract, and rectal sleeves are often not changed when cattle in the same herd are being palpated. There have also been experiments which have shown that BLV infection in cattle can occur by transferring infected blood into the rectum.[5,6,7] In these studies, infective blood was either purposely infused into the rectum of cows and calves or was inoculated onto the rectal sleeve prior to palpating calves.

The intent of this study was to determine if bovine leukemia virus could be transmitted by more routine rectal examination of BLV-negative, breeding age, cattle.

German and French abstracts on PDF.