Infectious Canine Hepatitis Virus Studies with Special Reference to Passage of Raccoon Tissue Cultures

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Abstract
Em-ploying tissue culture techniques, infectious canine hepatitis (ICH) virus was passaged 18 times in dog kidney cultures and subsequently 39 times in raccoon kidney tissue cultures. It was established that ICH virus would grow in tissue cultures prepared from raccoon corneal endothelium, ependymal cells from the brain ventricles and transitional epithelium from the urinary bladder. Fetal porcine and collared Peccarey, Tayassu angulalus, kidney cultures showed cytopathic changes after the inoculation of ICH Virus. The inoculation of normal puppies with raccoon tissue culture virus resulted in the appearance of specific neutralizing antibodies in the blood. Normal puppies in contact with puppies inoculated with raccoon tissue culture virus, likewise, showed the appearance of specific neutralizing antibodies in the blood. Transmission of the virus was through contact with virus infected urine. Normal kidney tissue cultures from two different dogs showed a characteristic cytopathology. From these tissue cultures, ICH virus was recovered. Neutralization tests with both heterologous and homologous virus, standard ICH immune serum and serum from the dog that provided the kidney for tissue cultures established that specific antibody and ICH virus can exist simultaneously in the host. Such virus infected hosts show no clinical signs of ICH disease. Eight per cent of 216 puppies, 3 to 7 months of age, from Central and Northwest Kansas had neutralizing antibodies against ICH virus.