No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

A virus was isolated from 2 day-old mice inoculated with homogenates of either the lungs or blood of 2 different shearwaters affected by puffinosis. Examination of infected suckling mouse brain and infected NCTC-1469 (mouse liver) cell cultures, by electron microscopy, revealed virus particles and inclusion bodies characteristic of a coronavirus. Neutralization, complement fixation and fluorescent antibody tests showed that the virus was related to mouse hepatitis virus. The virus was not isolated from 445 control, uninfected mice. Neutralising antibodies were not detected in 39 sera from diseased shearwaters and 2 sera from apparently healthy birds. Two shearwaters inoculated with the virus did not develop clinical signs of infection. The question of whether the virus was isolated from shearwaters or from laboratory mice is discussed.

SUMMARYViruses isolated from ticks (Ixodes uriae) and a kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) from a seabird colony at St. Abb's Head, Scotland, were shown by complement fixation tests (CFT) to be antigenically related to the Uukuniemi and Kemerovo serogroups. Electron microscopic examination of cell cultures infected with the Kemerovo group viruses revealed particles characteristic of orbiviruses, 72 _+ 3 nm in diam., with an inner core 37 _+ 3 nm in diam., in association with intracytoplasmic, densely staining granular areas, and with fibrillar and tubular structures. Cell cultures infected with the Uukuniemi group viruses revealed characteristic bunyavirus particles, 94 +_ 7 nm in diam., with a closely adherent envelope. Both orbi-and bunyaviruses were isolated from two tick pools and the kittiwake. A third tick pool contained an orbivirus which cross-reacted with the other isolates in CFT and fluorescent antibody tests, but was distinguished from them by neutralization tests.