Increased mortality and aneuploidy in embryos from rabbits injected with Newcastle disease virus at the time of ovulation and conception

In the rabbit, ovulation and conception occur during an 8–10 hour period immediately following mating (“reflex ovulation”). We report here that live Newcastle disease virus (NDV; an avian paramyxovirus) injected into rabbits immediately following mating resulted in a high frequency of embryo death at a wide range of developmental stages. When measured at midterm, a greater than threefold increase in embryo mortality was observed (24.7% vs. 6.8%). Aneuploidy of a small acrocentric chromosome was observed in three of 60 live midterm embryos recovered from NDV‐injected does. No aneuploidy was observed in 52 live midterm embryos from control, saline‐injected does. These observations suggest that the NDV‐exposed rabbit can provide a useful model for the study of the teratological effect of virus exposure occurring at or about the time of meiosis, ovulation, and conception.