Propagation of Mumps Virus in Suckling Mice and in Mouse Embryo Tissue Cultures

Summary

1. Mumps virus has been carried through 20 passages in mouse embryo tissue culture in the course of which it developed a progressive ability to grow in brains of suckling mice, without apparent illness of the animals. 2. Another strain of mumps, after passage in brains of suckling hamsters, also multiplied readily in the brains of suckling mice, leading to illness and, in a small proportion, to death on continued passage. 3. Practical and theoretical implications of this adaptation of mumps virus to mice have been discussed.