Pathology of Acute Henipavirus Infection in Humans and Animals

Table 1

Summary of animal susceptibility to henipavirus infection and range of pathologies reported in the literature.

Animal	Susceptibility to Hendra virus		Susceptibility to Nipah virus		CNS pathology of henipavirus infection		Non-CNS pathology of henipavirus infection		Remarks	Refs
	Natural infection	Experimental infection	Natural infection	Experimental infection	Vasculopathy***	Parenchymal lesions	Vasculopathy	Parenchymal lesions
Bat	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Mainly meninges	NR	Yes; Gastrointestinal tract, kidney, spleen, placenta, lung	Yes; Kidney, heart, liver, salivary gland, testis, lung, trigeminal ganglion, intestine, urinary bladder, prostate	Neuronal infection not reported so far	[29, 31, 32, 64, 65]
Cat	NR*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Meninges mainly	Yes; Mainly meningitis	Yes; Lung, gastrointestinal tract, kidney, urinary bladder, heart, liver, lymphoid organs	Yes; Lung, urinary bladder, kidney, lymphoid organs, gastrointestinal tract	Bronchial epithelium infection prominent. Encephalitis; /neuronal infection rare	[21, 40, 66–69]
Chicken embryo/; adult	NR	NA**	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Heart, lung, liver, kidney, spleen, proventriculus, skin, peripheral ganglion, yolk sac	Yes; Heart, lung, kidney, spleen, skin, feather, allantochorion, proventriculus, peripheral ganglion		[21, 70]
Dog	NR	NR	Yes	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes; Lung, kidney, liver	Yes; Lung, kidney		[21, 67, 68, 71], authors’ unpublished data
Ferret	NA	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Lung, kidney	Yes; Lung, kidney, lymphoid organs, urinary bladder, adrenal cortex, fallopian tube, thyroid		[72, 73]
Guinea pig	NA	Yes	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Lymphoid organs, urinary bladder, female genital tract, gastrointestinal tract, skeletal muscles, placenta, adrenal gland, thymus, thyroid, heart, lung, kidney	Yes; Lymphoid organs, urinary bladder, female genital tract, lung, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, adrenal gland, thymus, thyroid, heart	Encephalitis and neuronal infection more prominent with higher Hendra virus doses.; Lung mainly mild inflammation	[64–66, 74–76]
Hamster	NA	Yes	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Lung, kidney, liver, heart	Yes; Lung, kidney, spleen, heart		[76, 77]
Horse	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes; Lung, lymphoid organs, kidney, heart, gastrointestinal tract, urinary bladder, skeletal muscle	Yes; Lung, kidney, lymphoid organs, gastrointestinal tract	Neuronal infection not reported so far	[18, 32, 66, 67]
Mouse/; Rat	NR	NA	NA	No	NA	NA	NA	NA		[21, 76]
Non human primates (Squirrel monkey, African green monkey)	NA	Yes	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Lung, gastrointestinal tract, tongue, salivary gland, larynx, heart, gall bladder, sex organs, endocrine glands, skeletal muscle	Yes; Lung, kidney, spleen, urinary bladder	The African green monkey may be more susceptible to infection than squirrel monkey	[78–80]
Pig	NR	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes; Meninges mainly	Yes; Mainly meningitis	Yes; Lung, nasal turbinate, heart, kidney, lymphoid organs, gastrointestinal tract	Yes; Lung, kidney, lymphoid organs, larynx, peripheral nerves, tonsil, nasal turbinate	Bronchial epithelium infection very prominent. Encephalitis; /neuronal infection rare	[16, 21, 40, 67, 81–83], authors’ unpublished data

*NR= not reported; studies done.
**NA= not available; no studies done.
***Vasculopathy and parenchymal lesions, respectively, includes morphological changes and/or immunolocalisation of viral antigens.