[Infection of peripheral blood lymphocytes in sheep with bovine leukemia virus in vitro].

Continuous cultivation of peripheral blood lymphocytes from healthy sheep was carried out in vitro with the help of human recombinant interleukin-2. Lymphocytes were concurrently cultivated with the lethally X-rayed BLV-producing FLK culture cells. Electron microscopy and dot-blot hybridization established that sheep peripheral blood lymphocytes were infected with BLV and a full cycle of replication takes place in them.