key: cord-0008490-2374li1x
authors: Kaminjolo, J.S.; Adesiyun, A.A.
title: Rotavirus infection in calves, piglets, lambs and goat kids in trinidad
date: 2007-11-19
journal: Br Vet J
DOI: 10.1016/s0007-1935(05)80009-0
sha: ab18ae676a3eee8f91de865330c5e87d5a23342a
doc_id: 8490
cord_uid: 2374li1x

Faecal samples from diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic calves, piglets, lambs and goat kids were collected and screened by a latex agglutination test to detect the presence of group A rotavirus antigen. Of a total of 470 animals screened, 138 (29.4%) had faecal samples positive for rotavirus antigen. The prevalences of infection were 27.7% (73/264) in calves, 27.8% (45/162) in piglets, 48.6% (18/37) in lambs and 28.6% (2/7) in goat kids. Rotavirus antigen was not detected in calves and lambs <1 week old and in piglets <2 weeks old. The highest prevalence was found in calves between the ages 1–6 weeks (72.6%); piglets, 2–8 weeks (91.1%) and in lambs 1–8 weeks (88.9%). The overall prevalence of infection was 39.9% for diarrhoeic and 13.4% for non-diarrhoeic animals and the difference was statistically significant (P⩽0.001; X(2)). Differences among husbandry systems in relation to the prevalence of rotavirus infection were not statistically significant (P⩾0.05; X(2)). The relatively high prevalence of rotavirus infection in the young animals tested, coupled with the detected significantly higher infection rates in diarrhoeic animals, indicate that rotavirus may be important in livestock diarrhoea in Trinidad.

Rotavirus infection has been reported in man and in various animal species, particularly in connection with newborn animals (Mebus et aL, 1969; Snodgrass et aL, 1976; Woode et al., 1976; Flewett, 1977; Saif et aL, 1977; McNulty et al., 1980) . Infection is sometimes associated with diarrhoea either caused by rotavirus alone (Tzipori, 1981; Blood & Radostits, 1989) or together with some other enteropathogens (Moon et al., 1978; McNulty, 1983; Hess et al., 1984) . Under field conditions, rotaviruses have been isolated fi'om scouring animals (Snodgrass et aL, 0007/1935/94/03029 .'M)7/$08. 00/0 © 1994 Bailli~re Tindall 1976 Scott et aL, 1978; De Leeuw et aL, 1980; Tzipori, 1981) . However, detection of rotavirus in faeces from diarrhoeic and from asymptomatic animals has also been described (De Leeuw et al., 1980; Tzipori, 1981; McNulty & Logan, 1983; Crouch & Acres, 1984; Archambault et aL, 1990; Gelberg et al., 1991a) . Rotaviruses found in many animal species have been designated group A (Chasey & Banks, 1984; Tzipori, 1985) as the viruses possess a common group antigen; detection is based on serological tests capable of recognizing this group antigen (Woode et al., 1976; McNulty, 1978; Chasey & Davies, 1984; Chasey & Banks, 1984; Magar et al., 1991) . However, snch tests cannot detect atypical rotaviruses or pararotaviruses which are serologically divided into groups B, C and D because they lack the coinlnon group antigen. The detection of these groups is dependent on the analysis of faecal samples from infected animals by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) or by the use of specific antisera prepared against the known atypical rotavirus groups (Bohl et al., 1982; Chasey & Davies, 1984; Chasey & Banks, 1984; Tzipori, 1985; Magar et al., 1991) .

A latex agglutination (LA) test has been employed to detect rotaviruses in pig and calf faeces (Sukura & Neuvonen, 1990; Sanekata el aL, 1991) . Since group A rotaviruses share a common group antigen, rotaviruses in the faeces of one species should be detectable using latex particles prepared fi-om another species (Sukura & Neuvonen, 1990) . There is no known published information on rotavirus infection in livestock in Trinidad, but there is a report of rotavirus infection in human beings (Hull et aL, 1982) . The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence of group A rotavirus infection in diarrhoeic and nondiarrhoeic calves, piglets, lambs and goat kids on selected farms, using the slide latex agglutination (I_A) test.

Calves <24 weeks old and piglets, lambs and goat kids <12 weeks old were sampled from farms under intensive, semi-intensive and extensive management systems. Farms were visited routinely and when cases of diarrhoea were reported. Each animal was sampled once only. The sampling protocol has been described (Adesiyun et aL, 1992) .

A faecal sample was collected from the rectum of each animal and placed ill a sterile container which was appropriately labelled. A prepared questionnaire form was used to record animal's age and sex; date and place of collection of specimens; whether or not the animal had diarrhoea and the husbandry system used on the farm. Specimens were received at the laboratory ice-cooled <2 h after collection. Approximately 5 g faeces from each sample were transferred into a plastic bag that was labelled and kept at -20°C until required for testing.

A commercially available kit (Rota Screen R, Mercia Diagnostics Limited, Code M802, Snrrey, UK) was used to screen the faecal samples for the presence of rotavirus according to the manufacturer's instructions. A 10% suspension of each sample was prepared bymixing 0.1 ml or 0.1 g of the specimen with 1.0 ml extraction fluid. After mixing well, the suspension was left to stand at room temperature for 2 min. It was then centrifuged at 1000g for 10 rain at 4°C. Recommended 50/~1 volumes of the clear supernate and respective reagents were used. Agglutination patterns were examined macroscopically, after 2 min of gently shaking the slide.

The distribution of samples positive for rotavirus amongst diarrhoeic and nondiarrhoeic animals, and management system is shown in Tables I and II, respectively. An overall prevalence of rotavirus infection in livestock (29.4%; 138/470) was found in this study. A laigher prevalence was observed ill diarrhoeic (39.9%) than in non-diarrhoeic (13.4%) animals and the difference was statistically significant (P~-0.001; X"). A similar trend was detected in each of the four species studied and the differences in rotavirus detection between diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic faecal samples for each animal species had significance as follows: calves and lambs (/~-0.001; X'-') ; piglets (P~--0.05; X"). The prevalences of rotavirus infection were highest in the extensive (66.7%) husbandry systems; followed by the semi-intensive (32.9%) and intensive (28.1%) systems. However, the differences in prevalences of rotavirus infection in animals under different husbandry systems were not significant (P~-0.05; X'2).

The youngest animals positive for rotavirus infection were calves and lambs aged 1 week and piglets aged 2 weeks. The prevalence rate was highest in calves between the ages 1 to 6 weeks, 72.6% (53/73); piglets 2 to 8 weeks, 91.1% (41/45) and lambs 1 to 8 weeks, 88. 9% (16/18 ). The prevalence rates peaked at 3 weeks, 20.5% (15/73) for calves, 8 weeks for piglets 31.1% (14/45) and lambs, 38.9% (7/18).

Group A rotavirus antigen was not detected in calves and lambs younger than 1 week and in piglets under 2 weeks of age in the present study. Gomwalk et al. (1988) detected rotavirus at low prevalence rates in 1 to 2-week old calves but the prevalence increased with age until it reached 36% between the ages 8 to 16 weeks. McNulty and Logan (1983) first detected rotavirns in calves of about 6 days old. Others have found rotavirus infections in calves after the third day following birth (Woode, 1978; De Leeuw et al., 1980; Sibalin et al., 1980; Gelberg et al., 1991a, b) . Gelberg et aL (1991a) found that the shedding of rotavirus in piglets peaked at 3 to 4 weeks of age and Utrera et al. (1984) reported that rotavirus infection was detected more frequently in piglets that were 2 to 6 weeks old than in younger animals. In sheep, rota~drus has been isolated from the faeces of lambs with diarrhoea under 3 weeks old (Snodgrass et aL, 1976) . However, lambs that were 4 days old or older were reported to be only asymptomatically infected (Tzipori el al., 1981) . Thus overall, the age related distribution of rotavirus infection in calves and piglets, in our findings and those of others are in agreement.

There is serological evidence of rotavirus infection in sheep and goats (Woode et aL, 1976) and Scott et al. (1978) reported the presence of rotavirus in goat kid faeces. However, there appears to be a scarcity of data on age related distribution of rotavirus in lambs and goat kids (Blood & Radostits, 1989) . The very small number of goat kids (7/470) sampled and tested in the present study makes it difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the results.

The detection of rotavirus infection in non-diarrhoeic animals agrees with other reports (Snodgrass et aL, 1976; De Leeuw et aL, 1980; Perrin et al., 1981; Tzipori, 1981; De Rycke et al., 1982; NcNulty & Logan, 1983) , although the rates of infection vm T fi'om 42% (McNulty & Logan, 1983) , 23.8% (De Rycke et al., 1982) to 12.5% (Perrin et aL, 1981) . Gelberg et al. (1991a) fotmd that close to 30% of faecal samples froin normal pigs contained rotavirus antigen. The occurrence of rotavirus antibodies in all ages of certain animal species has led to the conclusion that asymptomatic infections are common in those species (Br{'lssow el al., 1990) .

The possible reasons given for low rates of rotavirus detection in non-diarrhoeic animals include excretion of undetectable levels of virus in the faeces (Crouch & Acres, 1984) or the method of detection employed. A more sensitive method would detect more asymptomically infected animals than a less sensitive method (Crouch & Acres, 1984; Sukura & Neuvonen, 1990; Sanekata et aL, 1991) . Moreover, only serological tests which are performed using atypical rotavirus group specific antisera can detect atypical rotaviruses present in faecal samples (Chasey & Davies, 1984; Chasey & Banks, 1984; Magar et al., 1991) .

The detection in our study of a significantly higher prevalence of rotavirus infections among diarrhoeic animals than non-diarrhoeic animals in all four animal species samples is of clinical significance. Rotavirus has been shown to be an important aetiological agent in diarrhoea in animals (Mebus et aL, 1969; Snodgrass et aL, 1976; Woode et aL, 1976; Saif et al., 1977; Scott et aL, 1978) and human beings (Kapikian et aL, 1976; Flewett, 1977) .

The rather higher prevalences of rotavirus infection detected amongst animals reared extensively and semi-intensively than in those kept under the intensive husbandry systems cannot be readily explained. Intensification of management systems would be expected to facilitate spread of infection among animals. It is, however, pertinent to mention that the differences in prevalence rates of rotavirus infections under the three systems were not statistically significant.

The LA test detected rotavirus in all four species indicating the presence of group A rotavirus in these animal species which, hitherto, had not been documented in Trinidad. In the only reported study on rotavirus infection in children in Trinidad, Hull et al. (1982) , using counterimmune electrophoresis, found 23% of children were gastroenteritis positive for rotavirus infection while only 1% of apparently healthy children were positive. These authors suggested that rotavirus had an aetiological significance in diarrhoea in children. Based on data generated in our study, it is also evident that rotaviruses have clinical significance in diarrhoea in livestock in Trinidad and that there is a prevalence of group A rotaviruses in the species sampled. Further analysis of faecal samples by the PAGE is required in order to determine the presence of atypical rotaviruses or pararotaviruses.

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The authors thank Dr R. Loregnard and Dr S.Johnson for their cooperation, Ms. Michele Noriega for technical assistance and Ms. Lu-Ann Joseph for help in the preparation of the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus Research Fund Committee.