Observations on the replication of ectromelia virus in mouse-derived cell lines: implications for epidemiology of mousepox.

Ectromelia virus was shown to replicate in vitro in all lymphoma cell lines and in a small proportion of hybridoma lines tested. It was demonstrated that certain hybridoma cell lines, which were passed in ectromelia virus-infected mice, yielded ectromelia virus infectivity on explantation into tissue culture. This finding further substantiated the belief that ascitic fluid and hybridoma cell lines exposed to virus during mouse-passage could be important in the epidemiology of mousepox.