Infectivity titrations of myxoma virus in the rabbit and the developing chick embryo

Abstract

Titrations of the same preparations of myxoma virus have been made on the chorioallantoic membranes of developing chick embryos and by the intradermal inoculation of rabbits. Six strains of widely differing virulence for the rabbit were used.No differences were found in the infectivity of different strains for either the rabbit or the egg, even though the severity of the symptoms produced in the rabbit varied greatly with different strains; and although some had never previously been inoculated in eggs and one had been subjected to seventy-five serial passages on the chorioallantoic membrane.The egg was less sensitive than the rabbit, the mean number of infections per dose for rabbits relative to eggs being 2.46, taken over all strains. This ratio did not differ significantly between strains of myxoma virus.There was evidence of some host variation in rabbit susceptibility and a great deal of variation in egg susceptibility. The maximum value for the average probability that an infectious unit would produce a lesion in the rabbit skin was about 0.6, and the maximum value for the average probability that an infectious unit would produce a pock on the chorioallantoic membrane was 0.25.Titration of several closely spaced dilutions of different strains of the virus on the chorioallantoic membrane showed a reasonably close approximation to a proportional relationship between the pock count and the virus dilution. The change with dilution in the proportion of failures to infect rabbits approximated to expectation. Both lines of evidence are consistent with the hypothesis that a pock or skin lesion is initiated by one infective unit of virus, and that the infective unit is stable with dilution.