Fig. 3: Infection of wild-type hamsters with the original XBB.1.16 isolate or a virus isolated from hamster #3.

Wild-type Syrian hamsters (2–3-month-old, males) were intranasally inoculated with virus at a dose of 10⁵ pfu in a total volume of 30 µl while under anesthesia. a, b Virus titers were determined by plaque assay with Vero E6 TMPRSS2-ACE2 cells from hamsters (n = 4/time point/virus) at day 3 or 6 after infection. Vertical bars show the mean virus titer ± SD. Data were analyzed by using Welch’s t-test with no significant differences between the two viruses in any tissue or at any time point. Points indicate data from individual hamsters. The lower limit of detection is indicated by the horizontal dashed line. NT nasal turbinate, NS not significant. c Body weights of infected hamsters (n = 4/virus) were monitored daily for 14 days. Data are presented as the mean percentages of starting body weights ± SD with dots indicating individual hamsters. Data were analyzed by using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with no significant differences between viruses at any time point with P-values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Source data are provided as a Supplementary data file.