Infection of SARS-CoV on juvenile and adult Brandt's vole Microtus brandtii

Hong Gao; Jingpian Peng; Wei Deng; Dazhao Shi; Linlin Bao; Dehua Wang; Binglin Zhang; Chuan Qin; Zhibin Zhang

doi:10.1007/BF03183693

Infection of SARS-CoV on juvenile and adult Brandt's vole Microtus brandtii

Chin Sci Bull. 2005;50(12):1199-1204. doi: 10.1007/BF03183693.

Authors

Hong Gao¹, Jingpian Peng², Wei Deng³, Dazhao Shi³, Linlin Bao¹, Dehua Wang², Binglin Zhang¹, Chuan Qin¹, Zhibin Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ 1Institute of Laboratory Animals Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, 100021 Beijing, China.
² 2State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management on Pest Insects and Rodents, State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100080 Beijing, China.
³ 3Chinese Agricultural University, 100094 Beijing, China.

Abstract

We studied the infectious effect of SARS-CoV virus on juvenile and adult Brandt's Vole (Microtus brandtii) by nasal cavity spraying method (CCID₅₀ is 10^5.7). SARS virus caused serious deaths in adults. The death adults demonstrated hemorrhage from mouth, nasal cavity and intestine, hemorrhageious interstitial pneumonia and gore in liver, spleen and kidney. The survival adults demonstrated local hemorrhagic spot in lung and emphysema, but the other organs showed no pathological abnormality. SARS virus caused no deaths in juveniles, but locomotion of infected juveniles became slower. In the early stage, there was local pneumonia in lung and SARS viruses were isolated from the pathological tissue. Only one control juvenile lived and the infected juvenile showed local pneumonia in lung. The results demonstrated that SARS-CoV infected Brandt's vole seriously and adults were more susceptive to SARS-CoV than juveniles. The Brandt's vole may be a potential animal model for SARS research.

Keywords: Brandt’s vole; SARS-CoV; animal model; pneumonia.