Table 6.
Rabbits used in the study of MPXV
| Animal species | Age | Viral strain | Route of infection/dose | Major findings | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) | Adults and 2-day -old | Serial dilutions of virus recovered from infected monkeys | Intradermal, scarification, and intracutaneous/a | Intradermal inoculation led to severe hemorrhagic reactions, but unlike what is observed with the vaccinia virus, pustules followed by necrosis were also observed. Lesions and pustules were also observed by scarification. Infection was fatal for two-day-old rabbits after scarification or intracutaneous inoculation | (Magnus et al.1) |
| a | a | Scarification, intravenous, intradermally, and subcutaneous/a | Scarification produced confluent lesions according to the concentration used. The virus was also infectious by the intravenous, intradermal, and subcutaneous routes. The intradermal rout caused after pulse lesions followed by secondary pustules and the intravenous route resulted in generalized disease although the animals recovered | (Prier and Sauer,56; Prier et al.57) | |
| Adults | a | Intradermally/a | Intradermal infection led to hemorrhagic-necrotic lesion in rabbits | (Gispen and Brand-Saathof,96) | |
| Adults and 2-day-old | Copenhagen and MPXV-6-7255 | Intracerebral and intradermally/a | All strains caused hemorrhagic necrotic skin lesions. Intracerebral infections in adult and 2-day-old rabbits were fatal with the development of adult meningoencephalitis | (Gispen et al.97) | |
| Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus) | 10-day-old | Copenhagen | Intravenous/107 p.f.u and scarification/105 and 106 p.f.u/0, 1 mL. Oral route/1,4 x 106; 107; 108; 109 p.f.u/2 mL. | Animals inoculated with MPXV generally had a generalized process of fever, conjunctivitis, rhinitis, rash on the skin and mucous membranes, and weight loss. Papules also appeared that developed into pustules and in some cases became hemorrhagic, with younger animals being more susceptible than adults | (Marennikova and Seluhina,48) |
a
Not reported; p.f.u: plaque formation unit; mL: milliliter; MPXV: monkeypox virus.