capsid production

catarrhal fever in cattle, pigs and deer. We have observed intact circular and linear OvHV-2 ge-nomes in infected T cell lines derived from cows and rabbits. Bovine T cell lines were predominantly latently infected but rabbit T cell lines supported OvHV-2 productive cycle gene expression and virus capsids were demonstrated for the first time. Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a severe, usually fatal, lymphoproliferative and inflammatory syndrome of domestic cattle, pigs, deer and certain other susceptible ruminants such as bison. Cases of MCF in cattle usually occur sporadically. However, periodically limited epizootic outbreaks occur (Hamilton, 1990) where losses can be substantial. MCF is also the most important virus disease of farmed deer. The disease is mainly caused by either of two bovid gammaherpesviruse