Susceptibility of various animals to the vesiculovirus Piry.
To determine the pathogenic potential of the vesiculovirus Piry for domestic animals, two ponies, two steers, three sheep, three goats and three pigs were inoculated intradermally in the tongue or, in the case of the pigs, in the snout, heel and coronary band. Inoculated animals were housed in one room and allowed to mingle freely with an equal number of uninoculated contact animals of each species. Clinical signs of infection, consisting of elevated temperature and ulcers at the inoculation sites, were only observed in the ponies, but all inoculated animals developed specific antibody following inoculation. In addition, one of the contact sheep had neutralizing antibody to Piry at 7 and 29 days post inoculation suggesting a contact infection. Virus was not demonstrated in tissues, other than tongue, of any animal. The failure of Piry virus to produce lesions in steers, sheep, goats and pigs and only limited ulcerations in ponies suggests that this virus is not similar pathogenically to New Jersey and Indiana strains of vesiculoviruses which produce classical vesicular stomatitis. Lethal infections were produced by inoculation into suckling mice and hamsters, adult hamsters and embryonating chicken eggs. Further, lethal infections followed contact of adult female hamsters with their inoculated litters.