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Studies of HSV infections of humans are limited by the use of rodent models such as mice or rabbits.The tree shrew(Tupaia belangeri chinensis)is a small mammal indigenous to southwest Asia.At behavioral,anatomical,genomic and evolutional levels,tree shrews are much closer to primates than rodents.In an attempt to develop the tree shrew into a model to study herpes virus infection,we were able to establish latent infections with HSV-1 following ocular inoculation.In situ hybridization,PCR and qRT-PCR demonstrated that HSV-1 latently infects neurons of the trigeminal ganglion.When explant co-cultivation experiments of trigeminal ganglia were performed,the virus was recovered after 5 days co-cultivation with high efficiency.Swabbing of the cornea of the infected tree shrews revealed that the tree shrews shed virus spontaneously at low frequencies.Interestingly,tree shrew differs significantly from mouse in the expression of key HSV-1 genes including ICP0,ICP4 and LAT both during the acute and latent phase of infection in the trigeminal ganglion.As a result,the tree shrew has a much weaker acute infection in the trigeminal ganglion.These observations suggest that the tree shrew is aviable model to study herpes virus infections.Furthermore,because it is genetically closer tohumans than rodents,its trigeminal ganglion infection may be more similar to that in humans than that in rodent models.