Division of Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Vety. Sciences & A.H., S.K. University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shuhama (Alusteng), Srinagar-190006.
Abstracts of Research Papers Presented during the National Symposium of Indian Virological Society at Unit of Plant Virology, Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, October 14–1.
Rotaviruses are one of the leading causes of acute viral gastroenteritis in neonates of the farm animals as well as humans. Recently these have also been implicated as a cause of meningoencephalitis in human infants. A total of 1299 faecal samples were collected over a period of three years from 656 and 286 diarrhoeic calves and lambs respectively, as well as 187 and 170 samples from apparently healthy calves and lambs respectively. Detection of rotavirus in faecal samples was carried out using RNA-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (RNA-PAGE), sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and in some cases with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Group A rotavirus was detected in 23.62% of diarrhoeic calves and 25% of diarrhoeic lambs studied.
Prevalence of group A rotavirus was highest (43.44%) in one month followed by (33.33%) in 3 weeks old diarrhoeic calves. In diarrhoeic lambs, the prevalence of group A rotaviruses was related more to meteorological changes than age, as the number of rotavirus infected lambs increased in spring months. The migration pattern of extracted RNA in RNA-PAGE was typical of mammalian group A rotaviruses. Five of the bovine rotavirus RNA isolates showed genomic diversity in migration of group III (RNA segments 7,8 and 9). In majority of cases these three bands co-migrated as tight triplet while as in some cases segment 9 moved slightly ahead of other two segments. Variation was also observed in migration pattern of group I (RNA segments 1–4). In some cases segments 2, 3 and 4 moved closely and slightly ahead of segment 1 while as in other cases only segments 2 and 3 moved together in between segment 1 and 4.
VP7 gene of 15 samples positive for rotavirus from calves was successfully amplified using RT-PCR. The amplified gene was of expected size (1011bp). G typing assay using nested PCR was successfully applied to 6 specimens yielding a single band of 665bp characteristic of G10 type.
