Twelve (Experiment I) and four (Experiment II) multiparous dairy cows seronegative to pestivirus were
selected and randomly assigned to either a control group which did not become infected or a treatment
group in which all cows became infected following intranasal inoculation 9 days before AI.
The experimental induction of infection was carried out with 2 ml of non-cytopathic pestivirus (BVD virus)
suspension containing 5 log10 TCID50/ml (Experiment I) and 4.5 log10 TCID50/ml (Experiment II).
In both experiments, the cows were superovulated on day 10±2 of the cycle using the standard procedures
The
cows in Experiment I were artificially inseminated at 12 and 24 h after the onset of estrus and a nonsurgical
ova/embryo collection was performed 7 days after AI. In Experiment II, the cows were slaughtered
on day 8 after superovulation-induced estrus and the ovaries submitted for gross and histopahological
examination including immunohistochemistry.