The propagation of the virus of epizootic hemorrhagic disease of deer in newborn mice and HeLa cells.

The New Jersey strain of EHD virus has been propagated in newborn Swiss mice by the intracerebral route and is regularly lethal beyond the first serial mouse passage. A complement-fixing antigen prepared from the brains of infected mice reacts positively with the sera of deer recovered from infection with either the New Jersey or South Dakota strain of virus, but not with the serum of normal deer. The mouse-passaged virus induced an inapparent infection in an experimental deer. The virus can also be grown serially in HeLa cell culture and induces a characteristic cytopathic effect. It is neutralizable in such cultures to high titer by the sera of deer recovered from EHD (New Jersey strain) and to lower titer by the serum of a deer recovered from EHD (South Dakota strain). Normal deer serum does not neutralize the virus in tissue culture. The HeLa cell-passaged virus induced typical lethal EHD in an experimental deer and virus could be recovered from most of the tissues of this animal in HeLa cell culture. An unexplained prozone of inhibition of cytopathogenicity at low dilutions was observed in cultures of some of the organs. The fact that EHD virus exhibited a limited sensitivity to sodium desoxycholate suggests that it may belong in the arbor virus group.