Development of leukemia in splenectomized animals.

<p>10 BLV-infected sheep were splenectomized a few months after seroconversion (average delay: 4.6 months). Mean (±SD) latency periods (time between seroconversion and leukaemia; leukocytes counts >40 000/mm³) in non operated BLV-infected sheep (n = 29) and in splenectomized sheep (n = 9). Statistical relevance (p<0.001, very highly statistically significant ***) was calculated according to the unpaired two-tailed student t test with Welch's correction.