The woodchuck animal model of hepatitis B-like virus infection and disease.
As a model of virus-induced disease, the WHV/woodchuck system is at an early stage of development; yet, much progress has been made and there now exists considerable evidence that WHV causes serious liver disease with major parallels to HBV infection of man. The relatively short interval (4-5 yrs) from infection to end-stage disease in this model provides unique opportunities for definition of the natural history of HBV disease and the evaluation of various intervention strategies (e.g., vaccine prophylaxis and anti-viral therapy). Such studies are currently in progress in a number of laboratories.
D000818:Animals; D002353:Carrier State; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000635:transmission; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D008392:Marmota; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D012589:Sciuridae