Isolation and identification of rotaviruses as aetiological agents of neonatal diarrhoea in kids. Electrophoretical characterization by PAGE.

Six strains of cytopathogenic enteric virus for the continuous cell line MA-104 were isolated from samples of the diarrhoeic stools of kids (Capra hyrcus) with acute enteritis. The samples were obtained from two stock farms (RM and SI) in central Italy. Four viruses from the RM stock were identified as rotaviruses of the antigenic group A by the Elisa test performed with SA-11 antirotavirus monoclonal antibodies and the direct immunofluorescence test with IgG bovine antirotavirus. Electrophoretical analysis of the viral dsRNA in these strains showed a pattern of eleven bands arranged in the typical "long pattern" of rotavirus group A. Two electrophoretical variants were identified in two separate cases of neonatal diarrhoea in the RM stock over a period of one year. The other two strains, one isolated in the RM stock and the other in the SI stock, gave negative results in serological tests for antigenic group A rotavirus and showed a double chain RNA consisting of 9-10 segments, unrelated to rotavirus or pararotavirus.