Contaminated premises are probably major reservoirs of PPV. The virus is thermostable, is resistant to many common disinfectants, and may remain infectious for months in secretions and excretions from acutely infected pigs. It was shown experimentally that although pigs transmitted PPV for only about 2 weeks after exposure, the pens in which they were initially kept remained infectious for at least 4 months. The ubiquity of PPV also raises the possibility that some pigs are persistently infected and at least periodically shed virus. However, shedding beyond the interval of acute infection has not been demonstrated. The possibility of immunotolerant carriers of PPV as a result of early in utero infection has been suggested. When gilts were infected with PPV before day 55 of gestation, their pigs were born infected but without antibody. Virus was isolated from kidneys, testicles, and seminal fluid of such pigs killed at various times after birth up to the time they were 8 months of age; at which time the experiment was terminated. Results of another study, wherein dams were infected early in gestation and their pigs were born infected but without antibody, also suggest an acquired immunotolerance. A possible example of an infected, immunotolerant, sexually active boar was reported.