Mumps Virus Infection of the Pregnant Hamster

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Abstract
The objective of our present studies has been to follow the course of mumps virus when injected intravenously into pregnant hamsters during early stages of gestation, in order to determine possible relations to fetal disease and/or malformations. Several considerations prompted the selection of mumps virus for these investigations. One was that, while rubella (Gregg, 1941) and cyto-megalic inclusion body disease (Weller & Hanshaw, 1962) have been the only two viruses shown to have a definite cause-effect relation in the etiology of human congenital malformations, there has been a continuing suspicion that mumps virus may also act as a teratogenic agent in human pregnancy (Kaye & Reaney, 1962; Blattner & Heys, 1961; Hyatt, 1961). A second reason was that mumps virus has a natural pathogenicity for hamsters (Kilham & Overman, 1953). In addition, this agent is capable of infecting women at term, the strain used in present experiments having been obtained from human milk a few days post-partum (Kilham, 1951).