Abstract
Many of the viruses of the psittacosis group have been cultivated successfully in fertile hens'eggs, the yolk sac being most satisfactory for this purpose. Using this particularly susceptible tissue, preparation of large amounts of virus has been possible. 1 Such preparations cannot be regarded as ideal for some purposes, however, such as attempts at purification of the virus 2 or for production of antigens, because of the large amount of admixed tissue debris and yolk material, removable only with difficulty. It occurred to us that the allantois, being embryologically similar to the yolk sac, might also show special susceptibility to the viruses of this group. The allantoic cavity has been extremely useful in cultivation of influenza virus, 3 and the advantages in the case of the latter virus might be expected to hold for others as well.
After our first attempts to adapt mouse pneumonitis virus, one of the agents of this group, to the allantoic cavity, the publication of Williams 4 appeared, in which he reports successful cultivation of psittacosis virus in the allantoic cavity and in greater amounts than obtained in the yolk sac. We have been able to confirm his finding and have extended the study to other viruses of the group. The present preliminary report records the successful cultivation of a strain of psittacosis, human pneumonitis (SF), and meningopneumonitis (F-97) virus in the allantoic cavity. The few attempts made so far to adapt mouse pneumonitis virus to the allantoic cavity have not been successful. Williams reported failure to cultivate lymphogranuloma venereum virus in this tissue.
The strains of virus used in the present experiments have been employed in previous work in this laboratory and their sources have been recorded. 2 The first inoculations into allantoic cavities were made with emulsions of infected mouse tissue or yolk sac, and subsequent passages were made with 0.25 cc quantities of undiluted allantoic fluid.
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