NATURAL HISTORY OF SENDAI VIRUS INFECTION IN MICE1

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Abstract
Parker, J. C. (Microbiological Associates, Inc., 4733 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda, Md.), and R. K. Reynolds. Natural history of Sendai virus infection in mice. Amer. J. Epid., 1968, 88: 112–125.—Some epidemiologic aspects of Sendai virus infection in mice were studied. Sendai virus was found to be a frequent contaminant of colonies of mice (44 per cent). No evidence for infection of wild mice was obtained. The major target organ for Sendai virus was the lung; however, virus was isolated readily from the saliva and occasionally from other organs during the course of infection. Virus transmission studies showed that when a group of susceptible mice came in contact with infected mice they rapidly became infected and virus was isolated from lung specimens for about 12 days and from saliva specimens for about 9 days after contact. The primary method of virus transmission was by direct contact with infected mice or fomites contaminated by infected mice; airborne transmission appeared to be of little importance. Temporal monitoring of breeder colonies revealed two different infection patterns, the most common being an “acute enzootic” type and the other an “acute epizootic” type. With the enzootic type, virus infection occurred shortly after the mice were weaned, was acute and highly infectious and resulted in nearly all susceptible mice becoming infected. After recovery, the mice no longer harbored detectable virus, and antibody persisted for life. With the epizootic type, observed in only one colony, the infection appeared suddenly, persisted for approximately 7 months and disappeared. Despite the widespread occurrence of Sendai virus in mouse colonies there is no clinical disease and disease also was never observed in experimental mice infected through contact with other infected mice.