Two alternative inocula to reproduce bluetongue virus serotype 8 disease in calves

The aim of this study was to investigate the consequences in calves of two forms of inocula alternative to the use of wild type infectious blood. Two groups of five calves were infected with low cell-passaged virus and infectious blood issued from one animal passage of the same strain. A longitudinal study was implemented and characterised by clinical standardised observations, haematology, BTV RNA detection and viral isolation from blood, detection of serogroup and neutralising antibodies, cytokine expression and post-mortem examination 46 days post-infection (PI). Both tested inocula were able to reproduce clinical expression of the disease, in the bloodstream viral genome was detected until the end of the experiment while virus isolation was possible between days 7 and 31 PI. Humoral immune response developed earlier in calves infected with low cell-passaged virus, while in both groups a massive antibody production was confirmed by the immune balance between IL-4 and IFN-γ expression. Both tested inocula are presented as valid alternative to the use of wild type infectious blood in the study of the pathogenesis of BTV-8 or the efficacy of current and future vaccines.