Studies with Rinderpest Virus in Tissue Culture: A Technique for the Detection and Titration of Virulent Virus in Cattle Tissues

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SUMMARY Virulent strains of rinderpest virus were isolated and titrated directly in rolled tube cultures of primary calf-kidney cells. The time to appearance of cytopathic changes varied from 3 to 12 days, depending on the amount of virus in the inocula, which were blood or tissue suspensions derived from infected cattle. No period of adaptation to cultural growth was necessary. Immune serum incorporated in the medium as late as the 2nd day p.i. completely suppressed viral cytopathogenicity, thus allowing the rapid, specific identification of isolates. Culture titres were probably somewhat lower than those which have been recorded in cattle titrations of comparable materials, but cultural methods may be reliably applied to the laboratory diagnosis and quantitative study of virulent rinderpest infections. Two attenuated vaccine strains of virus were not cytopathogenic to calf-kidney monolayers. These findings are discussed in the light of previously reported observations, which suggested some difficulty in the adaptation of virulent rinderpest virus to growth in monolayer cultures.