牛白血病病毒（BLV）是牛体内淋巴瘤的主要原因，并最近发现与人类乳腺癌有关。BLV如何和是否能传播给人类仍然未知，但可能是通过牛乳和牛肉传播。我们的研究目的是调查鲜牛乳和生牛肉中是否能找到BLV DNA，以及是否能在同一地理区域检测到人血清中的抗-BLV抗体。从已知对BLV血清反应阳性或阴性的牛身上采集了牛乳（n = 36）和牛肉（n = 54）样品，并通过嵌套PCR检测BLV的tax基因。通过ELISA检测了人血清样本（n = 900）中的抗-BLV抗体。在牛白血病病毒阳性牛的牛乳样品中，39%检测到了BLV DNA，而在牛肉样品中检测到32%。人血清样本中发现了4.1%的抗-BLV抗体。我们的数据进一步支持了BLV可能引起人兽共患病的假设，并表明从感染BLV的牛获得的牛乳和牛肉可能是感染人类的潜在源头。版权所有 © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. 保留所有权利。

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a major cause of lymphoma in cattle and has been recently correlated to breast cancer in humans. How and whether BLV might reach humans remains unknown but it could be through cattle-derived milk and meat. Here our aim was to investigate whether BLV DNA could be found in fresh milk and raw meat destined to human consumption and whether anti-BLV antibodies could be detected in human blood at the same geographical region. Milk (n = 36) and meat (n = 54) samples were collected from cows knowingly seropositive or negative to BLV and evaluated by nested PCR targeting BLV tax gene. Human serum samples (n = 900) were tested by ELISA to detect anti-BLV antibodies. BLV DNA was detected in 39 % of the milk samples and in 32 % of meat samples from BLV positive cows. Anti-BLV antibodies were found in 4.1 % of the human serum samples. Our data further supports the hypothesis that BLV might cause a zoonotic infection and indicate that milk and meat from BLV-infected cattle might be considered a potential source of infection to humans.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.