Table 2.

Advantages and disadvantages of animal models for filovirus infections

Animal models	Advantages	Disadvantages
Mice	Low cost, easy to use Transgenic and knockout models are available	Only i.p. infection is 100% lethal Mouse-adapted variants needed
Guinea pigs	Low cost, larger animals to study disease progression and easy to use	Transgenic and knockout models are not available Lack of immunological tools and reagents to evaluate cell-mediated responses to vaccines and therapeutics Guinea pig-adapted variants needed
Syrian Hamsters	An alternative to guinea pigs Elegant model to compare differences in immune responses to EBOV infection	Mouse-adapted variants needed Lack of commercially available reagents and host genomic information Transgenic and knockout models are available
Ferrets	Small body size, low cost Closely resembles to human filoviral disease Can use clinical isolates to study pathogenesis	Limited availability of ferret-specific reagents Ferret immune responses are poorly understood Transgenic and knockout models are available
NHPs	Gold standard model to evaluate filovirus infections and closely recapitulate human disease	Animals are expensive, ethical considerations and extensively husbandry requirements needed Transgenic and knockout models are not available

NHPs: Non-human primates.