Response of weanling random-bred mice to inoculation with minute virus of mice

Several methods (hemagglutination inhibition, immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and serum neutralization) for detection of serum antibody to minute virus of mice were compared using sera from random-bred, weanling mice experimentally inoculated by either the intraperitoneal or oral route. Antibody was detected by all methods in sera from intraperitoneally inoculated mice by 4 days post-inoculation, while sera from orally infected mice contained detectable antibody on day 7 by all methods except neutralization. Serum neutralizing antibody was detected much later and at lower levels in sera of orally infected mice than in sera of intraperitoneally inoculated mice. Virus was recovered from the intestines of both inoculation groups and from the kidneys of intraperitoneally inoculated mice. Among the latter animals, virus was still detectable 10 days post-inoculation, several days after serum neutralizing antibody had developed. Sentinel dams with litters placed in cages with intraperitoneally inoculated mice 10 days after the inoculation were seropositive by immunofluorescence and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay when tested 3 weeks after contact.