Pestivirus infection of ruminants in Australia

Pestivirus infections are commonly diagnosed in cattle but are relatively uncommon in other ruminant species in Australia. Virus isolation is a very reliable technique for detecting pestivirus in specimens, especially when group reactive monoclonal antibodies are used with immunoperoxidase staining to detect non-cytopathogenic virus. Care must be taken to prevent adventitious pestivirus contamination of serum or cells used for cell culture. A recently developed antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has been extensively evaluated and found to be extremely accurate. This test is also much quicker and less expensive than virus isolation. Procedures are outlined to reliably certify animals to be free of pestivirus infection for export or as donors of semen or embryos.