Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV), a member of the Pestivirus genus, is one of the most important pathogens of dairy cattle; it can cause several clinical syndromes, ranging from subclinical to severe disease. The objectives of the current studies were to assess the effects of two biotypes of BVDV on sperm attachment to the zona pellucida (ZP) of oocytes and on fertilization rate in bovine in vitro fertilization (IVF). In two experiments, sperm at two concentrations (105 and 106/mL) and oocytes were incubated with 106 TCID50/mL cythopatic (CP) or noncythopatic (NCP) BVDV. In the first experiment, with the lower sperm concentration (105/mL), male and female gametes were infected with CP or NCP BVDV, whereas in the second experiment, the sperm concentration was 106/mL, and sperm and oocytes were also infected with CP or NCP BVDV. The number of sperm attached to the ZP and the fertilization rate were evaluated with fluorescence microscopy on the ZP of fertile and infertile oocytes. In the first experiment, compared to the control group (n
97), oocytes infected with CP BVDV and incubated at the lower (105/mL) sperm concentration positively affected sperm attachment (n
123) to the ZP of fertile oocytes (P  0.05). In comparison with the control group (n
115), sperm infected with CP BVDV negatively affected sperm binding (n
93) to the ZP of infertile oocytes (P  0.05). In the second experiment (106 sperm/mL), for both fertile and infertile oocyte groups, sperm attachment in the control group was very high and deemed uncountable. However, in treated groups, the number of sperm attached to the ZP was countable. Only sperm infected with CP BVDV negatively affected sperm binding capacity (n
81) to the ZP of fertile oocytes (P  0.05). Although CP and NCP BVDV significantly reduced the fertilization rate of oocytes incubated with a higher sperm concentration, with the lower sperm concentration, only NCP BVDV significantly diminished fertilization rate with contaminated sperm and oocytes (P  0.05). In conclusion, this study supported the detrimental impacts of sperm or ooctyes infected with CP or NCP BVDV on sperm attachment to the ZP of bovine oocytes and on fertilization rate during bovine IVF. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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