Vaccinia virus meningitis in mice after intracerebral inoculation.

The pathogenesis of experimental vaccinia virus infection in weanling mice after intracerebral inoculation was followed with virological, histological, and immunohistological methods. High-dose inoculation, virus spread from brain to thoracic and abdominal viscera probably by an undetected early viremia. Virus did rise to detectable levels in blood by day 5 and was found to be associated with the mononuclear cell fraction. By day 12, 30% of the animals had died and no further deaths occurred. Rise of neutralizing antibody correlated with disappearance of cell-free virus in blood, brain, and viscera. Virus was present in the brains of animals for 20 days after inoculation. This animal model may be useful to study mechanisms of persistent central nervous system virus disease relevant to man.