To understand the pathology of natural cases of rotavirus (RVA) in bovine calves, a total of 40 cases below 6 months died due to diarrhoea were studied, out of which 7 cases (17.5%) turned positive for RVA by RT-PCR. Histopathology of small intestine showed loss of villous enterocytes, blunting and fusion of villi, elongation of crypts and mononuclear cells infiltration in the lamina-propria. The mesenteric lymph nodes were severely depleted of lymphocytes. These changes were corroborated with presence of RVA antigen in sections by dFAT and nucleic acid by RT-PCR. The fluorescent signals were more in mesenteric lymph nodes than in intestine. Besides, 115 rectal fecal samples were also collected from calves for RVA detection by RT-PCR using VP6 gene specific sets of primers. Dead carcasses of calves (n= 40) belonged to organized dairy farm of Bareilly, while rectal fecal samples belonged to both organized (n= 38) and unorganized farms (n= 77) of Bareilly and Gwalior. The overall occurrence of RVA was 19.3% (30/155), comprising 5/37 cases (13.5%) from Gwalior (MP) and 25/118 cases (21.1%) from Bareilly (UP). These findings suggest the infection of RVA widely prevalent in calves and have potential to escape from the intestinal site to mesenteric lymph nodes.
Culture-Independent Analysis of Indomethacin-Induced Alterations in the Rat Gastrointestinal Microbiota
