ISOLATION OF CORONAVIRUSES ANTIGENICALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM BOVINE CORONAVIRUS FROM WILD RUMINANTS WITH DIARRHEA

Diarrheal feces from three sambar deer and one waterbuck in a wild ani mal habitat and one white-tailed deer on a wildlife farm in Ohio conta ined coronavirus particles which were agglutinated by antiserum to bov ine coronavirus (BCV) in immune electron microscopy. Three coronavirus strains were isolated in human rectal tumor cells from the feces of t he sambar and white-tailed deer and the waterbuck, respectively, Hemag glutination, receptor-destroying enzyme activity, indirect immunofluor escence, hemagglutination inhibition, virus neutralization, and Wester n blot (immunoblot) tests showed close biological and antigenic relati onships among the isolates and with selected BCV strains, Gnotobiotic and colostrum deprived calves inoculated with each of these isolates d eveloped diarrhea and shed coronavirus in their feces and from their n asal passages, In a serological survey of coronavirus infections among wild deer, 8.7 and 6.6% of sera from mule deer in Wyoming and from wh ite-tailed deer in Ohio, respectively, were seropositive against both of the isolates and selected BCV isolates by indirect immunofluorescen ce tests, These results confirm the existence of coronaviruses in wild ruminants and suggest that these species may harbor coronavirus strai ns transmissible to cattle.