Recovery of BHV2 from the Nervous System of Experimentally Infected Calves

Abstract

Five calves were infected intravenously with bovid herpesvirus 2 (BHV2). Three of the calves were killed at the acute stage of infection and BHV2 was recovered from skin nodules, brain, ganglia and cutaneous nerve thus confirming the results of other workers (Castrucci et al., 1977; Castrucci et al., 1982). The remaining two calves were kept for 16 months during which time skin nodules persisted but became non-reactive. The calves were then given a course of corticosteroid intravenously and one calf was killed on each of days 3 and 5 after the last corticosteroid injection. BHV2 was recovered only from skin lesions reactivated post corticosteroid administration and not from the peripheral or central nervous system. The evidence presented suggests that in these two calves the skin was an important site of virus latency.