Mice Infected With Mouse Hepatitis Virus Shed Diagnostically Detectable Amounts of IgA in Feces

Abstract

Fecal pellets were sampled randomly from two breeding and four experimental units for laboratory mice. 1 breeding unit and 1 experimental unit was infected with Mouse Hepazistis Virus (MHV), while this infection was not found in the other
four units. By the use of Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) it was shown that up to 20 % of the mice from the infected units had detectable levels of MHV-specific IgA in feces. By weekly screening of feces from sentinel mice from the infected breeding unit it was found, that the highest number of mice with detectable MHV-specific lgA in feces was found four weeks after infection, as more than half of the examined fecal pellets were positive during this period. Hereafter, the numbers of positives declined, until no fecal pellets containing MHV-specific IgA were found in week 10 after infection. The possibilities of using lgA monitoring in routine health monitoring are dismissed.