Previously, we have shown that CMV isolated from deer mouse could be used in vivo and in vitro to express Sin Nombre virus (SNV) glycoprotein G1 in deer mice [Rizvanov AA, van Geelen AG, Morzunov S, et al. Generation of a recombinant cytomegalovirus for expression of a hantavirus glycoprotein. J.Virol. 2003;77(22):12203-10]. In this report, we further characterize replication of wild-type (wt) and recombinant Peromyscus CMV (PCMV) in vivo and in vitro using realtime PCR, and infectious center assays. Our findings indicate that both wt PCMV and recombinant PCMV establish persistent infections in P. maniculatus. In addition, we demonstrated that gamma irradiation of PCMV infected mice resulted in reactivation of recombinant PCMV in persistently infected mice.