Abortive Infection

abortive infection [ə′bȯrd·iv in′fek·shən]

(virology)

The viral infection of a cell in which viral components may be synthesized without the production of infective viruses. Also known as nonproductive infection.

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Abortive Infection 

in microbiology, contamination of a bacterial cell by a bacteriophage, after which neither reproduction of the phage particles and lysis (dissolution) of the bacterium nor lysogenesis occurs. Treatment of the contaminated cell with various substances, starvation of the bacteria in advance, the absence of calcium ions, and other influences can obstruct the reproduction of the phage in the cell. There are bacterial mutants in which contamination by a phage is confined to an abortive infection. The mechanisms of these processes vary.

In medicine the term “abortive infection” is used to designate the shortened course of an infectious disease that has few symptoms.