Summary The course of vesicular stomatitis in cattle was investigated in 2 dairy herds (A and B) located in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Cattle were examined and specimens were obtained for virus isolation and for serologic survey for one year after an epizootic in December 1982. All 33 lactating cows selected for study had oral lesions, but only 19 (58%) were drooling or frothing around the mouth. Lesions on feet and teats were not observed. The healing time (longer than has been reported previously) for oral lesions ranged from 34 to 59 days. The mean serum neutralizing antibody titer for all cows tested in both herds 21 days after clinical signs were first observed was >1:512. The mean titer decreased in the first 11 months after the epizootic, but remained > 1:128, and then increased during December 1983. Vesicular stomatitis virus/New Jersey strain was not isolated from 239 blood samples, 235 swab specimens of oral cavities, 38 swab specimens of oral epithelium, 206 urine specimens, or 232 fecal specimens collected from cows; however, it was isolated from tongue epithelium of 3 cows at 1, 4, and 21 days after signs of frothing were first noticed. For 20 lactating cows brought into dairy A during the epizootic, a mean time of 8.9 days elapsed between time of entry and appearance of clinical signs of vesicular stomatitis. Of 26 heifers that had entered dairy B 38 days after the last observed signs of vesicular stomatitis, 1 had antibody to vesicular stomatitis virus/New Jersey strain when tested 70 days after entry. Contrary to previous information, on the basis of serologic test results, age-specific prevalence rates for calf infection were estimated to be as high as 20% for calves 0 to 2 months old, 0% for calves 3 to 4 months old, and 88% for calves ≥ 5 months old at the time of the epizootic. In calves born after the epizootic, antibody titers decreased to ≤ 1:32 by the time they were 4 months old. One calf born 3 months after the epizootic had a titer of 1:256 at 9 months of age.
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Thurmond et al. (1987) studied this question.