Sensitivity of Suckling Mice to Various Strains of Infectious Bronchitis Virus

Abstract

Suckling mice are serviceable in many virological experiments because they are sensitive to various virus species. Simpson & Groupé (2) succeeded in adapting the Beaudette strain of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) to suckling mice, using the intracerebral route of inoculation. A study of the properties of a Finnish strain of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV_F) has been published recently (1). It successfully established the intracerebral adaptation of IBV_F to suckling mice. The suckling mice were 100 % sensitive to this virus strain up to an age of 12 days. Symptoms of the central nervous system with a typical clearly discernible gibbosity in the vertebral column were elicited after an incubation period of 2—3 days, and the animals died 3—4 days after the inoculation. Parallelly with IBV_F, transmission experiments with other IBV strains were carried out. The present paper is a report on the results of these experiments.