Abstract

Elahe Tajbakhsh*, Gholamreza Nikbakht Borujeni, Hassan Momtazan and Nour Amirmozafar

Bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV), a member of the family Retroviridae, is an infectious pathogenic lentivirus in cattle. Although, BIV induced cattle infections are reported in several countries of the world, its prevalence in Iran is not clearly known. In this investigation, we report the detection of proviral DNA sequence of BIV in 300 blood samples of cattle by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using oligonucleotiode primers specific for the gag gene region of the virus. Blood samples were taken from Chaharmahale Bakhtiary province. According to the PCR results, infection rate in the cattle population were 60%. This is the first report for the presence of BIV in cattle and sheep population of Chaharmahale Bakhtiary province, and the first evidence for sheep infection