Infection of newborn and fetal hamsters induced by inoculation of LuIII parvovirus.

The LuIII parvovirus was adapted to the newborn hamster and produced a systemic infection with massive intestinal hemorrhage. Inoculation of pregnant hamsters lead to transplacental infection of the fetuses and abortion. Most fetal deaths were observed in animals inoculated on days 8 and 10 of gestation. Virus was recovered from dead fetuses, placentas, and viable fetuses. Histological lesions were found in the heart, liver, kidney and CNS of infected fetuses.