Effect of attenuated viral vaccines on suckling mice infected with LCMV.

A single intraperitoneal treatment with live Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) containing attenuated NDV vaccine, and with live infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) containing attenuated IBDV vaccine, one day before intracerebral infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) increased, whereas a similar treatment with inactivated NDV or IBDV vaccine did not influence the death rate of suckling mice from experimental lymphocytic choriomeningitis. Thus the attenuated live vaccine stimulated, whereas the inactivated ones failed to affect the cell-mediated immune response to LCMV. Control studies set up with the supernatant of plain tissue culture routinely used for the propagation of IBDV have shown that unlike the attenuated NDV vaccine, the immunostimulatory action is associated not so much with the virus itself, as with an as yet unidentified component of the tissue culture supernatant.