Experimental infection of pigs with a thymidine kinase negative strain of pseudorabies virus

Sixteen 20 day old pigs, devoid of neutralizing antibody to pseudorabies virus (PRV), were divided into two groups of eight, and the animals of each group were housed in a separate unit. In each group 6 pigs were inoculated intranasally with the thymidine kinase (TKsup -) mutant (Group 1) or the field strain of PRV (Group 2), each pig receiving an inoculum of 4 ml. The remaining 2 pigs in each group served as uninoculated controls. The only clinical sign observed in the pigs of Group 1 was a transient febrile reaction, in the case of six pigs inoculated with the TKsup - mutant of PRV, whereas no signs of disease were seen in the uninoculated controls. The virus was isolated from the 6 infected pigs of the group only on post infection day (PID) 2, whereas it was never isolated from the controls. By contrast, the pigs of Group 2, had a severe clinical response and one, among those that were inoculated with the field strain of the PRV, died on PID 9. Virus was consistently isolated from all pigs of Group 2, inoculated and control. On PID 30 all pigs, i.e. the 8 of Group 1 and 7 of the Group 2 which survived to the infection, were subjected to dexamethasone (DMS) treatment. After DMS treatment virus was never isolated from the nasal swabbings obtained from the pigs of Group 1, whereas it was consistently isolated from pigs of Group 2. After 30 d from the start of DMS treatment the pigs were killed and several tissues were collected from each pig for virus detection, by isolation in tissue culture and by PCR analysis. At necropsy no lesions were found in pigs of Group 1, whereas acute pneumonia and gliosis in the trigeminal ganglia were observed in pigs of Group 2. Virus was never isolated from any of the tissues taken from pigs of both, Group 1 and Group 2, nevertheless sequences of PRV were detected by PCR analysis in the trigeminal ganglia of the pigs of both Groups.