Studies on Herpetic Infection in Mice

Passive immunity, naturally acquired from immune mothers or artificially induced through the administration of immune rabbit serum, conferred on suckling mice of the albino Swiss strain a high degree of resistance against herpetic infection following the intranasal instillation of the virus. Antibodies, which could be readily demonstrated in the blood of 2-week-old mice, were received by the offspring of immune mothers primarily by the mammary route. Naturally acquired immunity declined rapidly when suckling was interrupted. Herpes virus was not recovered from the fetuses of either immune or infected, non-immune mothers.