Mousepox, A Small Animal Model of Smallpox

Ectromelia virus infections in the laboratory mouse have emerged as a valuable model to investigate human orthopoxvirus infections to understand the progression of disease, to discover and characterize antiviral treatments, and to study the host–pathogen relationship as it relates to pathogenesis and the immune response. Here we describe how to safely work with the virus and protocols for common procedures for the study of ectromelia virus in the laboratory mouse including the preparation of virus stocks, the use of various routes of inoculation, and collection of blood and tissue from infected animals. In addition, several procedures are described for assessing the host response to infection: for example, measurement of virus-specific CD8 T cells and the use of ELISA and neutralization assays to measure orthopoxvirus-specific antibody titers.