Etiopathology of intestinal affections in bovine calves

A variety of infectious agents are implicated in calf diarrhoea, and co-infection of multiple pathogens is not uncommon in diarrheic calves. Forty carcasses of bovine calves having history of diarrhoea were necropsied and the samples of intestine, lung, liver, kidney, heart and lymph nodes were collected in 10% neutral buffered formalin for histopathology and in -20°C for molecular diagnosis. Lesions of enteritis were observed histopathologically, and rotavirus was predominantly associated with enteritis along with other concomitant infections viz. pasteurellosis, FMD, parasites, aflatoxicosis and septicaemia etc. In most of the cases, the aetiologies were confirmed by PCR (rotavirus and FMD virus), bacterial culture (bacterial enteritis) and by pathological lesions in the intestines and other organs. It was observed that rotavirus enteritis usually found associatedalong with concomitant infections.