Experimental rabies infection of non-nervous tissues in skunks (Mephitis mephitis) and foxes (Vulpes vulpes)

Non-neural tissues, from three male and four female stripped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), 5 to 7 months old, and one male and two female red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 12 to 16 months old, experimentally infected with street rabies virus, were examined by light microscopic immunohistochemical and electron microscopic methods. This is the first report of ultrastructural lesions in rabies-infected adrenal medulla, cornea, and nasal glands. Using the streptavidin biotin peroxidase technique, antigen was detected in mucous cells and interstitial neurons and their processes in the submandibular salivary gland, in chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla, in epidermal cells of the skin, in external root sheath cells of hair follicles, and in corneal epithelial cells. Electron microscopically, matrix (viral nucleocapsid), virions, and anomalous viral products were common in most tissues examined, but their relative proportions varied. The results suggested that replication with minimal accumulation of matrix and anomalous viral growth products was characteristic of growth in tissues (submandibular salivary gland) that frequently produce high titers of virus, whereas replication with large amounts of matrix and anomalous structures occurred in tissues (adrenal gland and nasal gland) that generally contained low or moderate titers of virus. Novel findings included viral budding into secretory granules, increase in microfilaments in infected mucogenic cells, and continuity of viral convoluted membranous profiles with rough endoplasmic reticulum of chromaffin cells and nasal glandular cells. The presence of viral antigen and developing virus in extra-neural tissues constitutes a potential risk of non-bite exposure to people in certain groups/occupations.