Duck Hepatitis B Virus Model in the Study of Hepatitis B Virus

Because of the narrow host range of hepatitis B virus (HBV) that infects only humans and chimpanzees, the closely related duck HBV (DHBV) provides a particularly useful model, which plays a pivotal role in study of hepadnavirus life cycle, virus-host interactions, and antiviral strategies (1 –3 ). This chapter describes the use of DHBV-infected Pekin duck as an in vivo model and Chapter 16 describes the DHBV primary hepatocyte culture for in vitro studies.