Susceptibility of the VERO line of African green monkey kidney cells to human enteroviruses.

The relative susceptibility of VERO cells and primary rhesus monkey kidney cells to 47 prototype strains of human enteroviruses is described. Of these strains, types 4, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 31 and 34 and Coxsackie virus A 9 failed to cause CPE in the VERO cells whilst only one, echovirus type 34, failed to cause CPE in the monkey kidney cells.A comparison is given of the efficiency of the two cell cultures for enterovirus isolation from clinical material. Results show that VERO cells are as useful as primary monkey kidney for the isolation of Coxsackie B viruses but less satisfactory for isolating echoviruses. They are satisfactory for the isolation of single types of poliovirus and appear to be more satisfactory than primary monkey kidney cells for the isolation of mixtures of polioviruses. The identification of enteroviruses by neutralization tests in VERO cells is successful.