Abstract
Summary
1) Adult garter snakes (Thamnophis spp.) inoculated intraperitoneally, overwintered WEE virus for at least 139 days. There was a steady decline in virus, with only 1 of 14 showing a viremia after 92 days hibernation. With warm spring weather, (139 days after virus inoculation) 9 of 14 animals exhibited a viremia with blood titers varying from 10-1 to 10-3.5. 2) Two of 4 garter snakes inoculated with WEE virus and kept at 4°C, for 17 days harbored the virus in the blood, but not the brain. One snake harbored the virus in the brain but not in the blood. No virus was detected in either blood or brain after 17 days at 4°C in one of the snakes.
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