Abstract

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a retrovirus that primarily infects older dairy cattle, but many studies have shown that the BLV host range is broader than previously reported.Monitoring risk groups, such as slaughterhouse workers, is important to determine if BLVcan infect humans and cause disease.The aim of this study was to determine whether slaughterhouse workers can be infected with the BLV. We also determined the seroprevalence of human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV-I/II) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to rule out cross-reactivity. This study included 28 blood samples from 28 slaughterhouse workers from a cattle butchery in San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, México. BLV was analyzed using an agar gel immunodiffusion test (IDAG), Western blotting, and PCR. The seroprevalence of HTLV-I/II and HIV were determined with passive agglutination and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Two samples (7.1%) were positive for BLV with IDAG, and this was confirmed with Western blotting. All samples were HTLV-I/II negative, and only one worker was HIV positive but BLV negative. These results suggest that humans are not necessarily infected with BLV, but rather seropositivity results from an abortive infection.

Key words: Bovine leukemia virus (BLV), slaughterhouse workers, México, agar gel immunodiffusion test (IDAG).