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Venezuelan Encephalitis Viremia in Hamsters and its Relation to Virus Feedback from Sentinel Hamsters to Mosquitoes in Nature^*

Infection of adult, 5- to 8- or 17-week-old golden hamsters with small doses of wild strains of Venezuelan encephalitis virus given subcutaneously produced viremia that began within 1 day of inoculation and lasted until death. Hamsters became ill 2 to 3 days after inoculation and died within 3 to 4 days. Thus, mosquitoes collected in hamster-baited traps within 3 days of death of the hamster could contain uneclipsed virus as a result of virus feedback to mosquitoes that bit the viremic hamster.

VE-virus concentrations in organs of hamsters, 42 to 48 hours after inoculation, ranged between 10^-3.5 and 10^-7.5 TCD₅₀ per 0.1 g of heart, brain, lung, liver, kidney, skeletal muscle, or spleen. Virus concentrations were essentially the same whether hamsters appeared to be well or were ill or dead. Thus, any of these organs or blood can be used for isolation of VE virus from hamsters that die or become ill after exposure as sentinels in nature.

^* This investigation was supported in part by USPHS Graduate Training Grant 5-T1-AI-231 from the NIAID and in part by research contract number DA-49-193-MD-2295 from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, Department of the Army, under the sponsorship of the Commission on Viral Infections of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board.