Sperm and oocyte as carriers for bovine viral diarrhoea virus biotypes during in vitro fertilization

Aidin Rahim-Tayefeh; Massoud Talebkhan-Garoussi; Morteza Daliri-Joupari; Farid Heidari; Maryam Vahidi; Mehran Bakhshesh; Abolfazl Shirazi

doi:10.1111/rda.14460

Sperm and oocyte as carriers for bovine viral diarrhoea virus biotypes during in vitro fertilization

Reprod Domest Anim. 2023 Oct;58(10):1448-1455. doi: 10.1111/rda.14460. Epub 2023 Aug 29.

Authors

Aidin Rahim-Tayefeh^{1

2}, Massoud Talebkhan-Garoussi¹, Morteza Daliri-Joupari², Farid Heidari², Maryam Vahidi², Mehran Bakhshesh³, Abolfazl Shirazi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Animal Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Animal Virology, Research and Diagnosis, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute (AREEO), Karaj, Iran.
⁴ Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute (ACECR), Tehran, Iran.

PMID: 37642243
DOI: 10.1111/rda.14460

Abstract

Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is an important viral agent causing the reproductive failure in cattle. The objectives of the study were to assess the role of male and female gametes, as carriers of cytopathic (CP) and non-cytopathic (NCP) BVDV to embryonic cells during in vitro fertilization. In this respect, sperm and oocytes were separately exposed to concentrations of 10^4.5 or 10^5.5 TCID₅₀ /mL CP and NCP BVDV, for 2 h before fertilization. After washing, the intact gametes with the infected gametes were inseminated. Seven days post-fertilization, the virus-exposed embryos were examined for presence of the viral genome by RT-PCR. One-way anova with post-hoc Tukey's HSD test and an independent samples t-test were used to compare within and between groups, respectively. The results presented a significant decrease in the blastocyst rates for CP-infected groups than NCP-infected groups (p ≤ .01). Compared to the controls and the infected oocyte groups, the cleavage rates of the infected sperm groups (NCP and CP BVDV) were significantly reduced both in low (10^4.5 TCID₅₀ /mL) and high (10^5.5 TCID₅₀ /mL) titres of the virus (p ≤ .01). The proportion of embryos which was developed to blastocyst stages was significantly lower for CP and NCP-infected groups than the control groups (p ≤ .001). According to the molecular results, all samples of the retarded/degenerated embryos (at least one blastocyst within each one) in CP and NCP groups, one sample (at least one blastocyst in that) within a CP-infected group, and six samples (at least one blastocyst in each one of those) of NCP-infected groups contained the viral nucleic acid. Likewise, the results of viral enrichment showed all reactions in which RT-PCR were positive induced CPEs in MDBK monolayers. In conclusion, it is clear that CP and NCP BVDV were able to traverse zona pellucida during fertilization, and they had also negative effects on embryo development.

Keywords: blastocyst rate; bovine viral diarrhoea virus; cleavage rate; cytopathic; in vitro fertilization; non-cytopathic.

Abstract

Grants and funding