Transmissible gastroenteritis in neonatal dogs: experimental intestinal infection with transmissible gastroenteritis virus.

Fourteen neonatal dogs (4 through 11 days of age) were exposed orally to the Purdue strain of transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) virus, and six dogs of similar age were noninoculated controls. Clinical signs of enteric disease did not develop. Both exposed and control dogs had normal fecal passages and appetite throughout the experiment. Jejunal epithelium from dogs euthanatized at 12, 24, 48, and 96 hours and at 10 days after exposure did not exhibit morphologic alterations detectable by light microscopy. Electron microscopic examination indicated that jejunal epithelial cells contained TGE viral particles as early as 12 hours after dogs were exposed. There were no apparent morphologic alterations or signs of desquamation of virus-infected cells, however. Results of pig transmission studies indicated that viable TGE virus was in jejunal tissue of the dogs as early as 12 hours and as late as 10 days after exposure to the virus.