ACUTE HEPATITIS ASSOCIATED WITH MOUSE LEUKEMIA : II. ETIOLOGY AND HOST RANGE OF THE CAUSAL AGENT IN MICE

The etiological agent of the acute hepatitis encountered in weanling mice of the Princeton strain is a virus found in the liver, spleen, kidneys, heart's blood, urine, and intestinal contents of experimentally infected animals. Older Princeton mice and weanlings from four other strains (Swiss, Webster's BSVS, C albino) and Bagg) proved to be less susceptible than Princeton weanlings.

The virus was demonstrable in Berkefeld V filtrates of liver suspensions and in supernatants after centrifugation at 10,000 G. In whole liver suspensions it was detectable in decreasing amounts through a dilution of 10^–7.

Aureomycin and terramycin had no detectable effect on the activity of the virus in weanlings.