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Nature 423, 674 (12 June 2003) | doi:10.1038/423674b

Prairie-dog model offers hope of tackling monkeypox virus

Jonathan Knight

A leading poxvirus expert says he envisages a new line of attack for biologists studying the monkeypox virus in the current outbreak in the midwestern United States.Mark Buller of Saint Louis University in Missouri says he will try to develop a laboratory model for monkeypox infection using prairie dogs, common rodents that seem to be capable of transmitting the virus.