Efficiency of the use of pock size on the chorioallantoic membrane of fertile hen's eggs as a method of typing herpes simplex viruses.

One hundred and eighteen herpes simplex virus isolates were typed in a diagnostic virology laboratory using their standard procedure by pock size on the chorioallantoic membranes (CAMs) of fertile hen's eggs. Forty-three were typed as type 1 and 75 as type 2. The isolates were then sent to a research laboratory in which they were typed blind, with or without subsequent passage in tissue culture, by neutralization with type-specific antisera. Discrepant results were found with only two isolates. The isolates were then typed by the more time-consuming but unambiguous method of restriction endonuclease analysis of their DNAs. Typing by this method confirmed the typing by neutralization and established that typing by pock size on CAMs was correct in about 98% of cases.