Detection of an atypical (possibly Group C) rotavirus in New Zealand pigs

Authors: Fu ZF
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 35, Issue 7, pp 115-116, Jul 1987
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock, Pig, Production animal
Subject Terms: Abdomen, Alimentary system/gastroenterology, Viral, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Species description
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: I wish to report the first detection of an atypical (possible Group C) rotavirus in New Zealand pigs. Rotavirus infection has been associated with gastroenteritis in a variety of animals including humans. Before 1980, it was thought that all rotaviruses from different animal species share a common group antigen. Recently, however, rotaviruses which are morphologically similar to but antigenically distinct from “conventional rotavirus” have been detected in a number of species and are referred as rotavirus-like viruses or pararotaviruses or simply as atypical rotaviruses. On the basis of cross-reactivity of group antigen, genome profile analysis on polyacrylamide gel and one-dimensional terminal fingerprinting of the RNA genome, all the rotaviruses detected so far could be classified into one of the five groups, A, B, C, D and E, with the “conventional rotavirus” being classified as Group A rotavirus. In New Zealand rotaviruses have been detected in humans and domestic animals associated with diarrhoea. All these viruses detected were presumably Group A rotavirus. A typical rotavirus has not yet been reported in this country. In an investigation into the pattern of Group A rotavirus infection in pigs in New Zealand (manuscript in preparation), a faecal sample collected from a 360-breeding-sow piggery in Waikato district was found to contain rotavirus particles…

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