WESTERN EQUINE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS VIRUS IN THE BLOOD OF EXPERIMENTALLY INOCULATED CHICKENS

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Abstract
The chicken has become a necessary animal for laboratory studies on the ability of arthropods to act as vectors of the Western equine encephalitis virus. The present studies were carried out to make possible the persuance and interpretation of epidemiological and vector studies. Chickens inoculated subcut. with 0.2 ml. of a 10-3 to 10-7 dilution of Western equine mouse brain virus had the virus in the blood serum between the 12th and 48th hr. in most instances. Virus has not been found to persist in blood, brain or spleen for > 3 days after inoculation. Antibodies were present in the blood within at least 15 days after inoculation. No fowl showed any sign of illness as a result of the infection. Marked evidence was found of virus multiplication in the chicken. Viremia could be induced regularly by inoculating subcut. the least amt. of virus which would produce encephalitis in the mouse when inoculated by the intracerebral route. Inoculation of such minimal infecting doses led to such multiplication of virus in the chicken that virus was detectable in the serum in a 10-4 dilution. On available exptl. data it appears that much less virus becomes available in the blood of large mammals (horse, cow and man). It is concluded that chickens may serve as sources of infection for mosquitoes or other blood sucking ectoparasites for short periods of time after the infecting bite of an invertebrate vector. There is no evidence that the chicken serves as a latent carrier of virus.