Isolation of bovine viral diarrhea virus from an alpaca

A frozen, stillborn alpaca (Lama pacos) was submitted to the Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for diagnostic purposes. No gross or histopathologic changes of any significance were seen. A pool of lung, liver, and brain tissues was positive for bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. On inoculation in cell cultures, a noncytopathic BVDV (type 1b) was isolated. No evidence of BVDV was seen on immunohistochemical examination of tissues. This indicates the importance of using multiple tests for arriving at a diagnosis and appears to be the first report of BVDV isolation from alpaca.