STUDIES ON THE CULTIVATION OF POLIOMYELITIS VIRUS IN CHICK EMBRYO

Abstract

The culture of poliomyelitis virus in the developing chick embryo has been hitherto considered to be a difficult matter. However, in 1952, Cox and others displayed its culturability by inoculating the yolk sack and the chorio-allantoic cavity of the developing chick embryo with the MEFI strain of this virus, with subsequent transmission of the cultured virus to M. rhesus monkeys. Their work proved the possibility of the cultivation of poliomyelitis virus not only by tissue culture but also in the developing chick embryo.
We have already observed that the growth of some virus in the chick embryo can be indirectly demonstrated by following the growth of another challenge virus subsequently inoculated. Here, we have made inoculations of the Lansing strain of poliomyelitis virus in the chorio-allantoic cavity and the yolk sack of the 6 day old chick embryo, and a challenge inoculation with the mumps virus (Enders strain and Fujimura strain) was made in the chorio-allantoic cavity or in the amnion cavity and have succeeded in determining the growth aspect of the polio virus by observing the degree of growth of the mumps virus. This observation is based on the so-called interference of the growth of the two different viruses, and we have made investigations on the various factors which come to play upon the incidence of this phenomena.