Bovine immunodeficiency virus in experimentally infected rabbit: tropism for lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissues

Abstract The bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV)/New Zealand ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ) rabbit model was used to study events that underlie the early and chronic stages of viral replication, routes and time course of viral dissemination and the distribution of the virus in the lymphoid, nonlymphoid and mucosa associated tissues. The results indicated that BIV, a lentivirus with genetic relatedness to the HIV, induced changes of clinical (anorexia, weight loss, muscular wasting, diarrhea, hypoalgesia, torticollis), immunological (recurrent T- and B-cell dysfunctions) and histopathological (lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly) nature that closely parallels those described for cat (FIV), monkey (SIV) and human (HIV) lentiviral diseases. These findings showing that BIV induces both splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy syndromes with associated fatal immune dysfunctions and the ability of the virus to replicate productively at the mucosal surfaces in rabbits, emphasize the importance of the BIV/rabbit system as a good small-animal model for the study of retrovirus-induced AIDS and offers the opportunity to evaluate prophylactic and therapeutic anti-retroviral agents of relevance to HIV-1 as well as the opportunity to study mechanisms of drug resistance phenomena.