Apex Centre for Animal Disease Investigation, Monitoring and Surveillance, College of Veterinary and Animal Science, Rajasthan university of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bikaner
Online published on 19 December, 2013.
Canine rotavirus is an infection that triggers intestinal inflammation. Rotavirus can affect dogs of all ages but is especially prevalent in puppies and youthful adults. Diarrhoea is an indication of the infection in puppies and other signs include exhaustion, decreased appetite, but mature dogs may not exhibit symptoms at all. The diagnosis of rotavirus infection has been achieved by a variety of methods based on either the direct visualization of the virion by EM or the detection of viral antigens by a wide diversity of immunological techniques.In present investigation a total 27 faecal samples from dogs of different breeds (Labrador, Dachshund, Rottweiler, Mix breed, Rottweiler, German shepherd, Pug, Mixed breed and nondescript local dogs) and different ages (1.5 – 8 months) suffering with severe diarrhoea or haemorrhagic diarrhoea were screened for rota virus infection by latex agglutination test (HiRotavirus TM Latex test kit) during November, 2011 – January 2012. The test is an antigen-antibody reaction which detects presence of rota virus antigen in faeces of infected animal. Out of the 27 faecal samples screened five were detected positive for presence of rota virus. The positive samples belonged to one German Shephard (5 months), two Labrador (1.5 and 2.5 months) and two mixed breed (3 and 8 months) dogs. Hence in the present investigation the incidence of rota virus infection recorded was 18.51% with no age and breed difference.
