LAT and infection: Analysis of the viral transcript and genome levels in HSV-1 infected embryonic chicken TGEs between 6 hpi and 7 dpi revealed that the infection of free distal axons spontaneously resulted in a largely nonproductive HSV-1 infection that was characterized by stationary genome levels with a median of approximately 10,000 to 20,000 genomes/TGE infected with 5×106 pfu HSV-1 17syn+, the expression of low and fluctuating levels of lytic transcripts, and the prominent expression of LAT at 24 hpi and thereafter.