Aujeszky's disease of sheep: experimental studies on the excretion and horizontal transmission of the virus.

Five 5-month-old merino lambs were nasally inoculated with 10(5.0) TCID50 of Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV). The dynamics of virus excretion in the nasal discharges--in agreement with the histologic findings--indicated that ADV also replicates in extraneural sites, in the upper and lower parts of the respiratory tract. The virus was excreted continuously in the nasal discharges, even during the incubation period. The titres, with certain fluctuations, increased gradually up to the final stage of the fatal disease. Following the onset of the clinical disease, the titre of excreted virus (ranging from 10(4.0) to 10(6.0) TCID50/0.1 ml) was comparable with the ADV content found in the nasal discharge of naturally infected piglets. However, the horizontal transmission of ADV to contact lambs failed.