ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF AN EQUINE RHINOVIRUS

Abstract

Nasal samples and blood were obtained from a mare recently imported from Eire which developed a severe, systemic febrile illness. From both samples a virus was isolated wich was chloroform‐stable, acid (pH 3, 4 and 5)‐labile, and heat‐stable at 50 °C for 1 hour if suspended in maintenance medium but heat‐labile if suspended in distilled H2O. The virus was non‐haemagglutinating (human 0, guinea pig, chicken and equine red blood cells). Replication was not inhibited by bromodeoxyuridine and by immunofluorescence and thin section electron microscopy was established that the virus replicates within the cytoplasm. The density of the virus in CsCl was 1.456 g./ml. In negatively stained electron mi..