Isolation and characterization of caprine arthritis encephalitis virus in goats from Poland

The caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) was isolated from monocyte-derived macrophages (M/M), but not from PBMC of seropositive goats by co-cultivation with goat synovial membrane cells. Out of eight M/M co-cultures, CAEV was evidenced by the syncytia formation and presence of proviral DNA in two and four cultures, respectively. Two virus isolates from co-cultures showing cytopathic effects were further confirmed as CAEV by western blotting, PCR, and sequence analysis. The nucleotide sequence of gag gene showed 92.0% and 90.3% homology to the prototype CAEV-Co strain. Supernatants harvested from these cultures induced syncytia when cultured with uninfected cells and the resultant titer was 10(3.5) and 10(2.5) TCID50 per ml. New CAEV isolates are suitable candidates for further analysis of their genetic and biological properties.