“…The present report shows that an avian influenza A virus (TUR), after serial passages, caused acute lethal hepatitis in various mouse strains. This result was anticipated for the following reasons : a) Avian influenza viruses are reportedly easy to adapt to new host cells (8,9,17,26), b) classical fowl plague (strain Brescia) is known to produce peculiar histopathologieal changes in mouse liver (15), c) the intrinsic susceptibility of mouse liver cells for human influenza viruses has been revealed by earlier studies (21, 24). Nevertheless, reliable growth of myxoviruses in hepatic tissues has, to our knoMedge, not been previously described.…”