Transmission of ground squirrel hepatitis virus to homologous and heterologous hosts

The infectivity and host range of ground squirrel hepatitis virus (GSHV) have been further examined by animal inoculation experiments. Although carrier squirrel sera usually harbor 109 to 1010 virions per ml as determined by physical measurements, titration of one such serum revealed that squirrel infectivity was lost following dilution of the sample over 106‐fold. Infectivity is markedly reduced by NP40 pretreatment of infected serum. GSHV infection cannot be readily transmitted to several related ground squirrel species, but chipmunks can be experimentally infected by GSHV virions or by cloned GSHV DNA, and the resulting infection closely resembles that seen in the normal host.