Rat respiratory virus (RRV) and other novel rodent diseases

Laboratory rodents are commonly used in biomedical research, because they often serve as excellent models for understanding complex biological processes. Laboratory animals that are surreptitiously infected with adventitious infectious agents, however, can confound or obviate biomedical research in which they are used. In fact, molecular based biotechnology has become so exquisitely sensitive that even subtle subclinical disease can be a major confounding factor. When novel rodent diseases are discovered, they are often put to use as animal models of human disease processes.; A novel virus was cultured from the lungs of rats with an unusual, characteristic, idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. The virus was cultured in vitro , and an initial serologic and physical characterization was performed. Immunofluorescent antibody testing indicates that the novel virus shows unambiguous two way cross reactivity with Hantaan virus. This is extremely significant because 250,000 people are hospitalized worldwide from hantavirus diseases each year, and there are no rodent models of human hantavirus diseases.; Two additional infectious agents, a bacterium named Helicobacter mesocricetorum and a paramyxovirus named TS-9, were identified in hamsters and guinea pigs, respectively. An initial molecular and physical characterization was performed on both of these agents, and diagnostic tests were developed to identify infected animals.; The molecular pathogenesis of hamster polyomavirus was explored through the use of the novel diagnostic technique in situ PCR. By in situ PCR we were able to validate the accepted method of virus dissemination, and demonstrate a potentially novel mechanism by which the virus is spread. Further, a molecular diagnostic technique was developed to rapidly test hamsters for the presence of hamster polyomavirus.