STUDIES ON THE ETIOLOGY AND TRANSMISSION OF EPIDEMIC DIARRHEA OF INFANT MICE

Transmission experiments have shown that epidemic diarrhea of infant mice of the CFW strain is infectious and communicable. Cage to cage spread can take place by the air-borne route. The agent appears to be a fairly heat-resistant virus that can be serially transferred and that is neutralized by specific hyperimmune antiserum from rabbits. Mice are susceptible to it by the oral route from at least the 3rd day after birth to the 10th or 11th day. Thereafter they appear to become resistant. The shortest incubation period observed has been 40 hours from the time of feeding infectious material; the longest period could not be ascertained under the conditions of test. Factors relative to the differentiation of this virus from other viruses are briefly discussed.