Effect of cadmium on Japanese encephalitis virus infection in mice. 1. Acute and single-dose exposure experiment.

When mice were treated with 0.09 mg cadmium chloride (Cd) per mouse once and inoculated i.p. simultaneously with Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) they showed a significant difference in the incubation time and mortality between the treated and untreated groups in repeated experiments. Cd treatment shortened the incubation time and the mortality increased greater than twice compared with the untreated control. This effect was not observed in the case of intracerebral inoculation of JEV. Effects of Cd on antibody formation in mice were also determined. Animals given a single s.c. dose of Cd were immunized with JE inactivated vaccine once simultaneously. When mice were treated with Cd, they did not show low neutralizing and hemagglutination inhibition activities compared with the control mice. Pretreatment of Cd did not affect any mortality or antibody formation.