The inadequacy of rectal temperature measurements for assessing the effects of antiviral drugs on influenza virus infection of ferrets.

From 6 experiments in which 99 ferrets were infected with influenza virus A/Finland/74 and treated with various agents which suppress virus shedding and other parameters of infection, we assessed whether rectal temperature correlated with nasal virus shedding. A number of temperature and virus-shedding related parameters were determined for each experiment but statistical analysis showed little correlation between them, although an elevated temperature occurred at some time after infection. The pooled data also suggested that temperature and virus shedding parameters are not clearly related. The analysis indicates that intermittent rectal temperature measurements are unsatisfactory for determining the efficacy of anti-influenza agents in ferrets.