Morphological and antigenic relationships between viruses (rotaviruses) from acute gastroenteritis of children, calves, piglets, mice, and foals

Abstract

The reovirus-like particles present in the feces of young pigs and foals with acute enteritis and the virus causing epizootic diarrhea of infant mice were found to be indistinguishable morphologically from each other, from the South African SA. 11 and "O" viruses, and from the rotaviruses of children and calves. The inner capsid layer of each of these viruses reacted seriologically with sera of children, calves, mice, piglets, and foals convalescent from infection with their respective rotaviruses. These sera reacted by immunofluorescence with human, bovine, porcine, and murine rotaviruses, SA.11, and "O" viruses in tissue cultures and with human bovine, procine, nad murine viral antigens by complement fixation and gel diffusion. However, the antisera differed in their ability to react serologically with the outer capsid layer of the viruses investigated and in their ability to neutralize tissue culture-adapted calf virus. These two tests may demonstrate strain or host specificity among rotaviruses. Since the porcine, murine, and equine viruses are closely related serologically to and are morphologically identical to the human and bovine viruses, they should be included in the group of viruses for which the term "rotavirus" has been suggested. All known members of this proposed group of viruses share a common antigen, probably situated within the inner capsid layer; thus, any one of the viruses may be used for the preparation of antigen or antibody for diagnostic tests, and this will aid in the diagnosis of virus infection in those species from which a rotavirus has not been cultured.

Viral intestinal infections of animals and man

“…These viruses are a leading cause of diarrhea in the young but may also cause sporadic intestinal infections in adult animals and human beings. All known rotaviruses share some common antigens associated with the inner capsid layer but they appear to be speciesspecific on the basis of cross-neutralization tests and RNA migration patterns [54,55].…”

“…The rotaviruses from different hosts cannot be differentiated morphologically. Although there is a degree of antigenic relatedness, there is preliminary evidence to suggest that species specificity is retained [54,55].…”

Viral diarrhea of young animals: A review☆

“…Rotaviruses from one species can infect members of other species. This is the case of human strains with which the infection has been experimentally transmitted to pigs [56], calves [57], lambs and monkeys (Macaca mulatta) [58] and of bovine strains which have been used to infect pigs [25].…”

“…Serological diagnosis of the infection can be accomplished by CF [21], FA [25], SN [24] and IHA [19]. For the IHA test a filtered fecal suspension may be used as antigen [19].…”

Development of specific nucleic acid probes for the differentiation of porcine rotavirus serotypes

“…Rotaviruses have been grouped into five antigenically distinct groups (A to E) with group A probably being the most prevalent (Pedley et al, 1986). Group A rotaviruses share a common group antigen (Woode et al, 1976) on protein VP6, an inner capsid protein (Greenberg et al, 1983b). Group A rotaviruses have been further classified into two subgroups (I and II) based on the subgroup antigen also located on VP6 (Greenberg et al, 1983b;Estes et al, 1983).…”