Cultivation of avian rotaviruses in chicken lymphocytes and lymphoblastoid cell lines

Avian rotavirus isolates were used to infect normal chicken spleen cells, lymphoblastoid T cell lines transformed by Marek's disease virus, an avian leukosis virus-transformed B cell line, and a reticuloendotheliosis virus-transformed line, which is a pre-B, pre-T cell line. All five isolates tested were able to infect spleen cells and the three types of lymphoblastoid cell lines, suggesting that avian rotaviruses can infect both B and T cells. Splenic lymphocytes were considerably less susceptible to infection than chick kidney cells. Lymphoblastoid cell lines remained virus-positive during a 10-day culture period. Virus was neutralized by the addition of low dilutions of normal chicken serum and high dilutions of chicken anti-rotavirus serum.