Influenza virus detection in aerosol samples exhaled by infected ferrets.

<p>Three ferrets each were housed under the designated environmental conditions and were presented with 10^3.8–10^5.5 pfu of PN99 (green) or IN11 (orange) virus by aerosol inhalation. On 1, 3 and 5 dpi, aerosol samples were collected from ferrets for 15 minutes of normal breathing (A) and 5 minutes of sneezing stimulation (B) and were segregated based on size (0.65–4.7 μm or >4.7 μm) and then assayed for the presence of infectious influenza virus. Total plaque forming units (pfu) from individual ferrets, n = 3, is shown with the grand mean for each sampling condition.