Increased mortality and aneuploidy in embryos from rabbits injected with Newcastle disease virus at the time of ovulation and conception.
In the rabbit, ovulation and conception occur during an 8-10 hour period immediately following mating ("reflex ovulation"). We report here that live Newcastle disease virus (NDV; an avian paramyxovirus) injected into rabbits immediately following mating resulted in a high frequency of embryo death at a wide range of developmental stages. When measured at midterm, a greater than threefold increase in embryo mortality was observed (24.7% vs. 6.8%). Aneuploidy of a small acrocentric chromosome was observed in three of 60 live midterm embryos recovered from NDV-injected does. No aneuploidy was observed in 52 live midterm embryos from control, saline-injected does. These observations suggest that the NDV-exposed rabbit can provide a useful model for the study of the teratological effects of virus exposure occurring at or about the time of meiosis, ovulation, and conception.
D000782:Aneuploidy; D000818:Animals; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000209:etiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000209:etiology*; D009522:Newcastle disease virus / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D010060:Ovulation; D011247:Pregnancy; D011817:Rabbits