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Bovine Leukemia Virus, a Versatile Agent with Various Pathogenic Effects in Various Animal Species¹

Department of Molecular Biology, University of Brussels, 67, Rue des Chevaux, 1640 Rhode-St-Genèse [A. B., C. B., Y. C., D. C., J. D., J. G., D. G., R. K., G. M., D. P., L. W.]; National Institute for Veterinary Research, 99 Groeslenberg, 1180 Uccle [M. M.]; and Faculty of Agronomy, 5800 Gembloux [A. B., R. K., M. M., D. P., L. W.], Belgium

The bovine leukemia virus is the etiological agent of a chronic lymphatic leukemia in cows, sheep, and goats. The same virus seems to induce a kind of wasting disease in experimentally infected rabbits. Antibodies to highly purified bovine leukemia viral M_r 51,000 glycoprotein and M_r 24,000 protein cross-react with human T-lymphotropic virus III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus antigens present in cultured lymphocytes of African patients suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Bovine leukemia virus has many structural and functional characteristics in common with the human T-lymphotropic viruses. The most striking feature of these retroviruses is the existence of a long open reading frame located at the 3' side of the provirus between the right end of the 3' side of env gene and the left end of the long terminal repeat. It is believed that the long open reading frame protein product acts in trans upon a number of genes to account for the biological effects of the virus.