Abstract: The invention resides in a matrix, i.e. in a carrier material, with human or animal cells adherently bound thereto, the cells being infected with virus. It has shown that surface-dependent cells suitable for virus propagation remain adherently bound to a matrix even in the virus-infected state, continuously produce virus antigen over relatively long periods of time and deliver them into the culture medium. For producing TBE virus antigen by growing tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus in cell cultures, a surface-dependent permanent cell line, preferably the Vero cell line ATCC CCL 81, is inoculated with TBE virus, and the cells are kept bound to carriers in a non-lyric serum-free system while maintaining the cell growth, so as to maintain antigen formation, whereupon the antigen-containing medium is separated form the carrier-bound cells and, in a known manner, is processed to a galencially acceptable preparation by concentration, inactivation and purification.

Abstract: A method of producing an influenza virus and vaccines derived from the virus utilizes cultured vertebrate biomass aggregates comprising a plurality of cell types derived from a plurality of vertebrate tissues and is particularly suitable for use with chicken embryo cultures. The method both eliminates the necessity to use costly methods requiring whole chicken embryos and provides proteases suitable for the activation of a wide variety of viruses. After infecting the cells of the culture with an influenza virus, which is preferably modified to create a cleavage site in the hemagglutinin of the virus, a substance such as a protease is introduced that cleaves the hemagglutinin. The culture then is incubated under conditions that permit growth of the virus.