Abstract
Summary
Humoral antibodies against the virus of St. Louis encephalitis can be demonstrated in the sera of hamsters inoculated by subcutaneous, intracerebral, intranasal and oral routes provided the animals survive the infection 7 days or more.
After subcutaneous inoculation, antibodies may appear in the serum within 48 hours after inoculation. They persist at high titer for many weeks. When inoculated intranasally or intracerebrally, some animals fail to develop antibodies prior to death and others which develop a high protective titer still succumb to the infection. Animals dying as long as 6 days after intracerebral or intranasal inoculation may fail to show neutralizing antibodies. No animal inoculated subcutaneously has failed to show humoral antibodies after the second day. The presence of humoral antibodies does not insure immunity against the disease.
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