Porcine fetuses with pulmonary hypoplasia resulting from experimental swine influenza virus infection.

Porcine fetuses between 51 and 57 days of gestation were inoculated intraallantoically with swine influenza virus and examined 3, 7, 13, 28 and 58 days after inoculation. At 3 and 7 days, severe epithelial necrosis was seen in most bronchial buds and there was moderate epithelial necrosis in more fully differentiated major bronchi. As a result of the epithelial injury, bronchial buds did not develop further and the surrounding mesoderm failed to differentiate. By 28 days, the lungs of inoculated fetuses were about one-half the size of the normal control lungs. Microscopically, the lungs of the inoculated fetuses were composed of major bronchi surrounded by multiple islands of cartilage, medium to large arteries and a few small, incompletely developed lobules. Influenza virus was isolated most consistently and in greatest quantity from the lung, trachea and chorion of inoculated fetuses. Influenza viral antigen was shown in the epithelium of bronchial buds, bronchi and the trachea by direct fluorescent antibody staining. Hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies to influenza virus were first found in the serum of an inoculated fetus at 13 days and in the sera of all inoculated fetuses at 28 and 58 days.