Detection of Group D Avian Rotaviruses among Layer Poultry from Western India

Abstract: Rotavirus is a major cause of gastroenteritis in infants and children worldwide and also in wide variety of mammalian and avian species. In the present study, 4 (7.84%) out of the 54 poultry faecal samples tested, were found positive by RNA-PAGE. The samples were of 60-65 weeks age layer poultry birds suffering from diarrhoea. All the PAGE positive samples resolved in to 11 segments with a migration pattern of 5:2:2:2 characteristic of group D avian rotavirus. All the positive samples were of short electropherotype in which segments 10 and 11 migrated very closely. Avian rotavirus samples subjected to VP4 and VP7th th gene based RT-PCR did not amplified respective products. RNA-PAGE positive samples were further subjected to VP6 gene based RT-PCR amplification using specific primers. All the four positive samples yielded a specific product of 493 bp. The study reports first ever detection of Group D avian rotavirus in Western India