. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jun 1.

Published in final edited form as: Transl Res. 2020 Mar 16;220:138–152. doi: 10.1016/j.trsl.2020.03.004

Table 2.

Advantages and disadvantages of animal models of HSV-2 genital infection

Genus	Pros	Cons	References
Mus (mouse)	Different strains available including knockout and transgenic to evaluate mechanisms of protection	Low phylogeny; requires administration of progesterone agonist to ensure infection; no spontaneous recurrences or shedding after infection	[45, 51, 52, 57, 59, 60]
Cavia (guinea pig)	Prominent genital lesions after infection; no need for progesterone for infection; develop viral recurrences and HSV-2 DNA shedding	Low phylogeny; fewer assays to measure HSV-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell responses; no knockout and transgenic strains	[110–112]
Macaca (monkey)	Similar phylogeny as humans; useful to study immunogenicity	Rhesus macaques do not develop genital lesions	[66, 68]