Avian encephalomyelitis virus in chicken pancreatic cell cultures

Monolayer cell cultures consisting of epithelioid cells were made from pancreatic tissue of 10-to-13-day-old chicks. The maximum virus titer of the cell-culture fluid was obtained 8 days after inoculation with an embryo-adapted avian encephalomyelitis virus (AEV). Virus titers also increased in cell cultures inoculated with a chick-pancreas-passed AEV or a field isolant. Cell cultures inoculated with 3 strains of AEV maintained virus titers of 10(2.9)-10(3.7) 50% embryo-infective doses/ml for 15-20 days. In other cell cultures from pancreatic tissues of chicks preinfected orally with the chick-pancreas-passed AEV or the field isolant, the virus titers decreased for several days after cultivation and thereafter increased and persisted until at least the 25th or 30th day. Neither a cytopathic effect nor any inclusion body was observed in the cell cultures infected with AEV. No AEV-antigen-positive cell was detected by direct fluorescent-antibody technique.