Confluent monolayers of BHK-21 cells were infected with either BTV-8 (isolate NET2006/04) or Great Island virus (GIV) (isolate CAN1971/01) at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.1 pfu/cell. Infected cell cultures were incubated at 37uC for 72 hours until cell lysis began. The cells were then scraped into the supernatant and centrifuged at 3,000 g for 10 minutes. RNA was extracted from cell pellets using guanidinium isothiocyanate (RNA NOW reagent: Biogentex, Tx, USA) as described earlier [19] . KC cells were infected at an MOI of 0.1 pfu/cell and then incubated at 28uC for 7 days. Both BHK-21 and KC cell pellets were used in western blot analyses as described below.