Fig. 1.

Confirmation of viral infection and viral transcript quantification: A) Amplification of NS1 gene by PCR at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h p.i in BTV-16 infected sheep PBMCs (M-1 kb DNA ladder; 1-Negative control; 2-Infected PBMC at 24 h p.i.; 3-Infected PBMC at 48 h p.i.; 4-Infected PBMC at 72 h p.i) B) Amplification of NS1 gene by PCR at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h p.i in BTV-16 infected goats PBMCs (M-1 kb DNA ladder; 1-Negative control; 2-Infected PBMC at 24 h p.i.; 3-Infected PBMC at 48 h p.i.; 4-Infected PBMC at 72 h p.i) C) Viral copy number across time points in sheep and goats by Real time PCR. Students t-test and Tukey HSD, were done in JMP 9.0., to compare the NS1 gene expression between sheep and goats at each time point and to compare the NS1 gene expression between time points within species, respectively. Levels not connected by same letter are significantly (P < 0.05) different within a time point between species. Across time points the viral copy number was significantly different between all time points in sheep. In goats, the viral copy number was found to be significantly different at 72 h p.i. w.r.t 24 and 48 h p.i.