The TO strains of Theiler's viruses cause "slow virus-like" infections in mice.
Intracerebral inoculation of mice with tissue culture-adapted TO strains of Theiler's mouse encephalomyelitis viruses results in a clinical disease consisting of spastic paralysis due to demyelination after a lengthy incubation period. Thus, in effect, these ordinary picornaviruses are capable of causing a slow infection in their natural host, the mouse. In addition, through the use of tissue culture-adapted virus stocks, virus content in mouse tissues now can be accurately quantified by standard plaque assay.
D000818:Animals; D004770:Enterovirus; D008297:Male; D004680:Maus Elberfeld virus; D051379:Mice; D010849:Picornaviridae; D012897:Slow Virus Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000473:pathology