Virus propagation in a swine monocyte cell line

The propagation of seventeen virus strains, classified into five virus families, in a swine monocyte cell line (SW/K99) was studied in the point of infective progeny production. The viruses examined were adapted to grow in a swine epithelial cell line (KSEK6) and were proved to show clear CPE in advance. These viruses were successively passaged in the monocyte cultures regardless of CPE occurrence. The cultures at 3rd passage level were titrated for their infectivity using KSEK6 cells. Out of the viruses examined, only Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) was able to propagate in the monocytes. Four ADV strains, two virulent and two attenuated strains, were compared for their growth in two cell lines. The final amount of infective progeny measured at 72 hours incubation at 36.5 degrees C was almost in a similar order between 2 cell lines. However, the amount of infective progeny produced at 24 hours incubation was higher in SW/K99 cells than that in KSEK6 cells. The occurrence of CPE was also more evident in SW/K99 cells in an early incubation. The data indicate that viral susceptibility of the monocytes to ADV is higher than that of epithelium. Other viruses were abortive in the monocytes.