Evaluation of bovine viral diarrhea virus uptake by preimplantation embryos

Bovine embryos were exposed to bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus in vitro. An uptake of BVD virus by the embryos could not be detected by several assay systems. A significant decrease in the titer of BVD virus was found to occur when the virus was incubated in saline solution + 5% goat serum or minimal essential medium + 5% goat serum for 24 hours at 37 C. Since there was significant inactivation of the BVD virus during the incubation period, lack of viral infectivity of the embryos may have been due to adverse effects of the experimental environmental conditions on the virus or the embryos or upon viral-embryo interaction.