A primate model for acute and recurrent herpetic keratitis.

Twelve squirrel monkeys were inoculated in both eyes with the Rodanus strain of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and were examined for the presence of acute epithelial keratitis. All of the eyes developed dendritic keratitis within 72 hours after inoculation. The twelve monkeys plus two additional similarly infected monkeys were also examined for the presence of clinical recurrences of ocular herpes infections and spontaneous shedding of virus in their tears. Two of the eyes developed stromal disease, and 13 of the monkeys had at least one episode of recurrent clinical epithelial disease. Virus was isolated from two of the eyes with recurrent dendrites.