Neuronal pathways of viral invasion in mice after intranasal inoculation of pseudorabies virus PrV-9112C2 expressing bovine herpesvirus 1 glycoprotein B.

In contrast to wild-type Pseudorabies virus (PrV), which infects the central nervous system mainly via fibres of the trigeminal and autonomous nerves, the PrV mutant PrV-9112C2, deleted in glycoprotein B but expressing its bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) homologue, was shown to infect the swine central nervous system (CNS) via the olfactory route. In this study application of PrV-9112C2 into the nose of mice resulted in CNS infection as described for wild-type PrV. These findings indicate that gB((BHV-1))-dependent changes in PrV's capability to infect swine olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) are not prominent in mice and give evidence for viral entry receptors present in swine but not mice OSNs.