Human exposure to bovine polyomavirus: a zoonosis?

A competitive-type solid phase radioimmunoassay (RIA) was developed for the detection of antibody to bovine polyomavirus. Comparison of RIA and counter-immunoelectrophoresis (CIE) results on 273 cattle sera indicated that both techniques were detecting antibody of like specificity. Human sera from 256 blood donors, 219 people recently vaccinated against polio, rubella or rabies, 50 immunosuppressed patients and 472 people with various occupational exposure to cattle were tested for antibody to bovine polyomavirus, the foetal rhesus monkey kidney strain, (anti-FRKV) by RIA. Apart from one blood donor and one of 108 rabies vaccinees only those in close contact with cattle possessed anti-FRKV. Compared with 62 per cent seropositive in the natural hosts, cattle, 71 per cent of veterinary surgeons, 50 per cent of cattle farmers, 40 per cent of abattoir workers, 16 per cent of veterinary institute technical staff and 10 per cent of veterinary students were anti-FRKV positive. Our findings indicate that the theoretical hazard of FRKV infection from undetected contamination of current tissue culture derived vaccines may, in practice, be remote. Proposed wider use of primate kidney cells as substrates for new vaccines may increase this risk.