[Experimental model of hepatitis A in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) infected with human hepatitis A virus].

The focus of this paper is characterization of Hepatitis A experimental model obtained for the first time in rhesus monkeys (M. mulatta) infected with fecal isolate from a patient with Hepatitis A (HAV-H1). Monkeys were susceptible to oral and intravenous routes of HAV inoculation. The disease could be reproduced regularly in 4 passages as a result of which HAV strain continuously pathogenic for M. mulatta has been established. All 17 infected monkeys developed Hepatitis A with characteristic (except jaundice) patterns: shedding of virus with the stool, elevations of serum alanine aminotransferase level, appearance of IgM anti-HAV, morphological changes developed in the liver. Our data have demonstrated that the course of experimental Hepatitis A infection in M. mulatta is similar (in many respects) to that observed in man.