Pregnancy and parturition of mice latently infected with Pseudorabies virus

In this study, the influence of pregnancy and parturition on mice in a mouse model of latent infection with Pseudorabies virus (PrV) was analyzed. Latently infected (LI) female mice were paired with mature uninfected males. The mating produced progeny without any clinical signs of Aujeszky's Disease. At weaning, both male and female progeny of LI mice showed significantly lower weight than control mice. PrV was not detected from nasal swab specimens of the female parent mice or the trigeminal ganglia of all mice, except 3 of 50 neonatal mice. These findings demonstrate that pregnancy and parturition induce little reactivation of latent PrV, but do affect the mother's body, as indicated by the decreased weight of progeny at weaning.