Volume 52 Issue 6, June 2023

A mouse model to study norovirus pathogenesis is described. The murine norovirus strain WU23, originally isolated from an intestinal site, induces severe but self-resolving diarrhea in neonates, reflecting the pathology observed during human norovirus infection.

The authors investigated the influence of housing density and bedding volume on ammonia build-up in two individually ventilated mouse cages models. While the amount of bedding had no influence on ammonia levels, smaller Type II individually ventilated cages accumulated higher ammonia levels than larger Type III individually ventilated cages, even at similar housing densities.