What is meant by cytopathic and non-cytopathic BVD biotypes?
These terms refer to a recognizable characteristic of BVD viruses in the laboratory. The BVD virus (like all mammalian viruses) does not grow or reproduce without living cells. In the laboratory we have developed cell lines that will grow in test tubes (actually we use tissue culture plates). These cells growing in the laboratory can be inoculated with samples to see if there are virus particles in the sample, i.e., we attempt to “isolate” a virus. The cytopathic (CPE) BVD biotypes cause visible damage to the cells in cell culture vials in the laboratory. The non-cytopathic (non-CPE) biotypes do not cause any visible damage. This does not mean the non-CPE strains are less damaging to cattle, in fact in some respects the non-CPE BVD strains cause more problems. The non-CPE viruses are the biotypes or strains that cause persistently infected (PI) cattle and this is one of our biggest problems in controlling the spread of BVD.
