Some clinical and epizootological observations of infectious sialoadenitis in rats.

Epizootological and clinical observation was made of infectious sialoadenitis ocurring at a rat facility. The disease occurred mostly among animals 8 to 64 weeks of age without specific relevance with sex and age, and clinical signs disappeared within 5 days after the onset. Morbidity rates and duration of epizootics ranged from 13 to 100% and from 5 to 32 days, respectively. Most rats having severe clinical signs of sialoadenitis showed decrease in food uptake, body weight loss and remarkable disorders of estrous cycles.