Detection of Rodent Parvoviruses by PCR

The rodent parvoviruses include mouse parvovirus (MPV), minute virus of mice (MVM), H-1 parvovirus (H-1), Kilham rat virus (KRV), rat parvovirus (RPV), and hamster parvovirus (HaPV). Recent reports suggest LuIII, an autonomous parvovirus of unknown host origin, may also belong to the rodent parvovirus group (1 ,2 ). In general, rodent parvoviruses cause subclinical infections in their host of origin, although naturally occurring clinical disease may occasionally occur secondary to KRV or HaPV infection (3 ,4 ). Probably of more importance to the scientific community are the potential adverse effects these agents may have on research that utilizes rodents with inapparent and undetected infections. Subclinical rodent parvovirus infections may alter the immune response or cause fetal resorption or oncosuppression (5 ). In addition, rodent parvoviruses can cause persistent infections in cell culture and transplantable tumor lines (6 ,7 ), and therefore can adversely affect experiments performed in vitro.