Abstract
Mice of different ages were infected i.p. or i.c. [intracerebral] by 23 different strains of VEE [Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis] virus. The course of the virus host interaction was specified in terms of the efficiency of infection, the outcome of infection as lethality or protection and the survival time. These separately quantifiable features all showed several host-maturation events that combine to provide a multifactorial specification of virus-strains and host-responses. This base-line for correlations with the responses of principal hosts (Equidae and man) may be expanded to test correlations with the antigenic or in vitro characteristics of virus-strains.