Distribution of Guinea Pig Herpeslike Virus in Brain and Other Tissues of Naturally and Experimentally Infected Animals

Distribution of GPHLV in the trigeminal ganglion, brain, and other tissues of guinea pigs was studied. Virus was found in suspensions of all tissue cells from naturally infected guinea pigs, as well as animals inoculated ip or ic, up to 15 months after initiation of infection. Evidence of virus infection was detected by cultivation of cells or by cocultivation of infected cells with susceptible cell cultures, but not by other methods including immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. Quantitative determinations of virus in the trigeminal ganglia and different parts of the brain showed infectivity titers to be similar in these tissues. Since GPHLV was also found in blood and in high titer in spleen, and in other tissues tested, isolation of virus from neural tissues may have been due to contamination with infected blood leukocytes.