Nasal mucosa and NALT are portals of entry for MCMV upon oronasal inoculation.
Afterwards, MCMV spreads to submandibular lymph nodes (LN) and deep cervical LN, subsequently into spleen possibly via lymph and blood circulation.
Next, a subsequent cell-associated viremia generated at 7 dpi carries virus to distal organs such as submandibular glands (HaNa1 & Smith), liver and kidneys (Smith).
The spleen is hypothesized as a transfer hub for regulating viremia and virus dissemination.