Abstract
THE natural history of louping ill, particularly the role of small mammals, has been little examined although the disease is still a major veterinary problem in many hill sheep-farms in Scotland. Findlay and Elton1 showed that the short-tailed vole, Microtus agrestis, is susceptible to intracerebral inoculation with the virus. The occurrence of natural infections in wild animals such as red deer, Cervus elaphus2; red grouse, Lagopus scoticus3; and hares, Lepus sp.4, suggested that the virus had a wider natural host range than sheep and cattle.
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References
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GORDON SMITH, C., VARMA, M. & MCMAHON, D. Isolation of Louping ill Virus from Small Mammals in Ayrshire, Scotland. Nature 203, 992–993 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/203992a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/203992a0
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