Nutrition as a Factor in the Development of Constitutional Barriers to Involvement of the Nervous System by Certain Viruses

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Abstract
Mice raised on an adequate diet regularly develop a fatal ascending flaccid paralysis when inoculated intramusc. with vesicular stomatitis virus at 2 wks. of age, about 80% are resistant at 4 wks. and 95 to 100% at 5 wks. or later. When prematurely weaned (2 wks.) and fed only enough of the adequate diet to maintan wt., 90% failed to develop this resistance by the 5th wk. Similar retardation occurred when such mice were fed (ad lib.) diets deficient in the heat-labile components of the vit. B complex and to a lesser extent when the diet was deficient in vit. E. When nursing mothers were put on diets deficient in the heat-labile B complex 2 days after delivery, few of the offspring reached the 4th wk. of life, and of 8 survivors none was resistant. When the maternal diet contained rice polish concentrate as source of the B complex the offspring were all susceptible at 4 wks. but the majority became resistant later. Once established, the resistance of mature mice was not affected by these deficiencies.