THE PATHOGENESIS OF ALEUTIAN DISEASE OF MINK

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Abstract
Mink inoculated with 1 x 105 ID50 of Aleutian disease virus revealed very high virus titers in the tissues 8–18 days later. The highest virus titers observed were 5 x 108 ID50 per g of spleen and 1 x 109 ID50 per g of liver 10 days after inoculation. Concomitant with the increase in infectious virus titers, viral antigen(s) was found in the cytoplasm of macrophages in the spleen and lymph nodes and in Kupffer cells in the liver. Antiviral antibody was assayed by indirect immunofluorescence, using sections of infected liver as the source of antigen. A few mink infected for 9 days and all those infected 10 days or more developed antibody to Aleutian disease virus antigen(s). By 60 days after infection, when hypergammaglobulinemia was marked, the mink had an exceptionally high mean antibody titer of 100,000.