RABBIT GENITAL TISSUE IS SUSCEPTIBLE TO INFECTION BY RABBIT ORAL PAPILLOMAVIRUS - AN ANIMAL-MODEL FOR A GENITAL TISSUE-TARGETING PAPILLOMAVIRUS

Rabbit oral papillomavirus (ROPV) is a mucosatropic papillomavirus whi ch naturally infects oral mucosal sites of domestic rabbits. In this s tudy, we tested the hypothesis that rabbit genital mucosa is also susc eptible to ROPV infection by using the athymic mouse xenograft system and adult immunocompetent rabbits. Subrenal xenografts of ROPV infecte d rabbit vulvar and penile sheath tissues were strongly positive for R OPV infection by histologic, in situ hybridization, and Southern analy ses. Direct inoculation of adult rabbit penises with infectious ROPV p roduced small raised lesions of approximately 1 by 1 by 1 mm that were ROPV positive by both in situ hybridization and Southern analyses and were also viral capsid antigen positive by immunohistological stainin g. Infection of rabbit genital tissues with ROPV may be a useful anima l model for the study of genital tissue-targeting papillomaviruses.