Choclo virus infection in the Syrian golden hamster.

Andes virus and Choclo virus are agents of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Andes virus in hamsters almost always causes a disease that is pathologically indistinguishable from fatal hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The purpose of this study was to assess the pathogenicity of Choclo virus in hamsters. None of 18 hamsters infected with Choclo virus exhibited any symptom of disease. No evidence of inflammation or edema was found in the lungs of the 10 animals killed on days 7, 9, 11, 13, and 16 post-inoculation or in the lungs of the 8 animals killed on day 28 post-inoculation; however, hantavirus antigen was present in large numbers of endothelial cells in the microvasculature of the lungs of the animals killed on days 7, 9, 11, and 13 post-inoculation. These results suggest that infection in the microvasculature of lung tissue alone does not result in the life-threatening pulmonary edema in hamsters infected with Andes virus.