Tataguine virus infection in mice and hamsters

Suckling hamsters, weanling and suckling mice, inoculated intracerebrally with Tataguine virus consistently developed fatal infections with average survival time of 3-8 days. Deaths were observed in a few suckling hamsters infected by the intraperitoneal route. Infectivity assays and fluorescent antibody staining of organs of infected hamsters showed that the brain was the only organ in which viral replication occurred. Histopathological lesions found in the brain of such mice and hamsters infected by intracerebral or intraperitoneal inoculations included neuronal degeneration and necrosis, interstitial and perivascular oedema of the cerebral cortex and the spinal cord, leucocytic infiltration and perivascular cuffing. Thin section electron microscopy of infected mouse brains revealed the presence of bunyavirus-like particles within the cytoplasmic vacuoles of neurons.