EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE, RELATIVE HUMIDITY AND MEDIUM ON THE AEROSOL STABILITY OF INFECTIOUS BOVINE-RHINOTRACHEITIS VIRUS

  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 43  (2) , 158-167
Abstract
Aerosols of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus were generated with a Devilbiss 40 nebulizer from Eagle''s minimum essential medium, nasal secretion from a noninfected calf and nasal secretion from a calf artificially infected with infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus and aged in a rotating drum at temperatures of 6 or 32.degree. C and relative humidities of 30 or 90%. The aerosols were sampled at 7 min, 1 h, 2 h, and 3 h after spraying started with an all glass impinger (AGI-30) and titrated for infectivity in cell cultures. Physical decay was determined by a rhodamine B tracer technique. During spraying (7 min from start of spraying), the virus was usually more stable in aerosols of nasal secretion from a noninfected calf and at 90% relative humidity. In nasal secretion from a noninfected calf the virus survived best at 90% relative humidity when the temperature was 6.degree. C and best at 30% relative humidity when the temperature was 32.degree. C. During aging, biological decay was greater at the higher temperature, and at 6.degree. C, the highest decay rates occurred at 30% relative humidity in Eagle''s minimum essential medium and at 90% relative humidity in nasal secretion from a noninfected calf. The stability of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus in infected nasal secretion was not widely different from that in noninfected nasal secretion, although under certain conditions greater survival occurred in the noninfected secretion.