Biology of Rous sarcoma virus adapted for replication and transformation of duck cells.

A duck-adapted variant of the Prague strain of Rous sarcoma virus and its molecularly cloned derivatives were characterized biologically. The virus replicated and transformed with the same efficiency both duck and chicken embryo fibroblasts. The daPR-RSV-C was also used for induction of tumours in newborn hamsters. The virus from virogenic hamster tumours could be rescued using the duck cells as indicator cells. The virus rescue was influenced by restricted replication of the virus in the indicator cells.