Inspection of Commercially Available Fetal Bovine Sera Collected between 2017 and 2021 for the Contamination of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is one of the high-risk agents for contamination in fetal bovine serum (FBS). In this study, we examined 41 FBS samples collected between 2017 and 2021 for BVDV contamination. Thirty-four of 41 samples (82.9%) were positive to pestivirus-specific RT-PCR, and 17 (41.5%) and 1 (2.4%) of 41 samples were seropositive using the neutralization test for BVDV1 and 2, respectively. Ten of the 41 samples that were RT-PCR-positive with a high ELISA titer were subjected to virus isolation; however, no infectious virus was detected. Our results showed that only 5 of the 41 FBS samples (12.2%) were both PCR-negative and BVDV-specific antibody-free. It is important to note that FBS potentially poses some risks associated with BVDV.