{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T09:03:10Z","timestamp":1790672590282,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,26]],"date-time":"2026-09-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790380800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100005825","name":"USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2020-67015-21562"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020-67015-21562"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100005825","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["2020-67015-21562"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020-67015-21562"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05qx3fv49","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Int. J. Mol. Sci.","IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a deltaretrovirus that establishes lifelong infection in cattle and remains highly prevalent in dairy herds. This study evaluated associations between maternal BLV infection markers, daughter BoLA-DRB3 variation, and BLV outcomes in dairy youngstock. We studied 201 dam\u2013daughter pairs from five dairy farms. BLV status was assessed using ELISA and quantitative PCR (qPCR); maternal qPCR results were available for 126 dams, and daughters were sampled longitudinally during the youngstock period. BoLA-DRB3 genotypes were determined in 199 daughters, and genotype-level epitope breadth was defined as the non-redundant union of predicted BLV Gag epitopes across both alleles. BLV proviral DNA was detected in 33 of 200 daughters (16.5%) in the qPCR outcome used for the main analysis. Among 38 daughters with BLV proviral DNA detected at least once, first detection occurred preweaning in 2, prebreeding in 24, and post-breeding in 12. Maternal ELISA positivity was associated with higher odds of daughter BLV proviral DNA detection (OR 2.74, 95% CI 1.10\u20136.83), whereas maternal PVL showed a positive but imprecise association (OR 1.94, 95% CI 0.89\u20134.22). Greater predicted epitope breadth was nominally associated with lower odds of BLV proviral DNA detection (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.60\u20130.97; q = 0.162) and BLV seropositivity (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.65\u20130.98; q = 0.162), but neither association remained significant after correction for multiple testing. BoLA-DRB3*014:01:01 carriers also had lower observed frequencies of BLV proviral DNA detection and BLV seropositivity. Overall, maternal infection markers were associated with later BLV outcomes in daughters, whereas the BoLA-DRB3 findings provide suggestive evidence of host immunogenetic heterogeneity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms27198627","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T16:50:54Z","timestamp":1790614254000},"page":"8627","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Maternal BLV Infection Markers and BoLA-DRB3 Polymorphism Are Associated with BLV Infection Outcomes in Dairy Youngstock"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Madison E.","family":"Sokacz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6860-4474","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aneta","family":"Pluta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Virology and Viral Animal Diseases, National Veterinary Research Institute, 24-100 Pu\u0142awy, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6323-8735","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bo","family":"Norby","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Paul","family":"Bartlett","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8600-1431","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kelly R. B.","family":"Sporer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cornerstone Ag Management, LLC, Hastings, MI 49058, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Casey","family":"Droscha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CentralStar Cooperative Inc., Lansing, MI 48910, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4310-9570","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tasia M.","family":"Taxis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5831278","DOI":"10.1155\/2018\/5831278","article-title":"Prevalence of Bovine Leukemia Virus Antibodies in US Dairy Cattle","volume":"2018","author":"LaDronka","year":"2018","journal-title":"Vet. 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