The Role of Maternal Antibody in Contact Infection of Mice with Sendai Virus

Abstract

To study the role of maternal antibody in infection with Sendai virus in mice, maternally immune and non-immune mice, aged 4 to 5 weeks, were placed in cages with infector mice and the cages were kept for 19 days in a vinyl isolator. Neither increase of hemagglutination inhibiting antibody titers nor gross pulmonary lesions was recognized on the immune mice during the observation period in contrast with the non-immune mice. However, the mulitiplication of the virus in their respiratory tracts was the same or slightly low as compared with that of non-immune mice.