The aim of the present study was to determine whether or not cytopathic (CP) and noncytopathic (NCP) bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) are able to replicate within in vitro-produced embryos and to investigate whether inoculation of embryos with BVDV affects their normal development. Zona pellucida (ZP)-free oocytes, zygotes, 8-cell-stage embryos, morulae, and hatched blastocysts (HB) were incubated for 1 h in 1 ml of Minimal Essential Medium containing 10(6.00) tissue culture infectious dose (TCID)50/ml NCP BVDV isolate 22,146 or 10(6.25) TCID50/ml CP BVDV strain Oregon C24V. At 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, and 72 h postinoculation (hpi), groups of embryos were collected for virus titration. A small amount of newly produced virus was detected in 8-cell embryos at 60 hpi (10(1.8) TCID50/100 cells), but only for CP BVDV. For ZP-free morulae and HB, maximal intracellular virus titers were, respectively, 10(1.47) and 10(2.33) TCID50/100 cells at 48 hpi for the CP biotype and 10(0.64) and 10(0.84) TCID50/100 cells at 72 hpi for the NCP biotype. Only an infection with CP BVDV had a significant inhibitory effect on further development of ZP-free morulae. It can be concluded that ZP-free in vitro-produced embryos are permissive to an infection with BVDV, with increasing susceptibility of the embryos in accordance with their developmental stage. In contrast to observations in ZP-free in vitro-produced embryos, no virus replication or signs of embryonic degeneration were detected in ZP-intact in vitro-derived embryos.