Table 3. Tissue tropism and viral loads in birds that died after experimental inoculation with WNV, Mexico*.
| Species† | WNV strain | dpi | Viral load by tissue type, PFU/0.5 cm3 |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brain | Heart | Spleen | Kidney | Lung | Liver | Pancreas | Intestine | Skin | |||
| House sparrow | Tecate | 4 | 8.0 | 7.6 | NR | NR | 9.3 | 8.1 | 4.9 | <0.7 | 7.6 |
| Tecate | 5 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 7.6 | 7.2 | 9.2 | 8.0 | 5.2 | 3.1 | 8.0 | |
| Tabasco | 6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | NR | 3.6 | 4.5 | 5.7 | <0.7 | <0.7 | 4.9 | |
| Tabasco | 7 | <0.7 | <0.7 | <0.7 | 1.3 | 1.9 | <0.7 | <0.7 | <0.7 | <0.7 | |
| Tabasco | 7 | 3.1 | 7.7 | 4.8 | 5.9 | 5.2 | 5.2 | <0.7 | NR | NR | |
| Great-tailed grackle | Tecate | 4 | 7.4 | 8.2 | 7.5 | 8.8 | 9.3 | 7.6 | 6.7 | <0.7 | 8.0 |
| Tecate | 12 | 3.4 | 5.1 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 4.9 | |
| Tabasco | 3 | NR | 8.1 | 3.8 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 7.9 | <0.7 | NR | NR | |
| Tabasco | 4 | 8.1 | 7.7 | 6.6 | 7.9 | NR | 7.4 | 4.7 | 2.7 | 7.8 | |
*WNV, West Nile virus; dpi, days postinoculation; NR, not reported because of insufficient sample collection. †Deaths occurred in sparrows and grackles but not thrushes and chickens; thrushes and chickens were euthanized on 21 and 7 dpi, respectively, and tissues from these birds were negative for infectious WNV with the exception of 1 chicken-derived skin sample (102.0 PFU/0.5 cm3).