I. Markowskadaniel et al., EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT METHODS (ELISA, IF, EM, PAGE) FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF ROTAVIRUS INFECTION IN PIGLETS, Comparative immunology, microbiology and infectious diseases, 19(3), 1996, pp. 219-232
The study on the prevalence of rotaviral infections among diarrhoetic
piglets in 11 commercial farms in Poland was carried out on 531 faecal
samples tested using an ELISA to screen for rotavirus. Of these, 169
were found to contain rotavirus antigen (32% of all cases of diarrhoea
tested). Those pig herds managed using the Bisprol system had a lower
prevalence of rotavirus in pigs with diarrhoea than those faecal samp
les obtained from Gi-Gi or Agrokomplex Agard farms. To further establi
sh the presence of rotavirus antigen, 28 of those positive in ELISA sa
mples were taken for isolation of the virus using tissue culture; 18 (
64%) isolates were successfully adapted into MA-104 cells and the pres
ence of rotavirus confirmed by immunofluorescence (IF) and electron mi
croscopy (EM). In addition, an analysis of the band patterns visualise
d on PAGE showed 9 distinct electropherotypes for rotaviral dsRNA amon
g the tested specimens. These findings suggest that rotavirus may repr
esent an important contribution to the incidence of diarrhoea in Polis
h pig herds. The use of ELISA technology provided an efficient and eff
ective means of evaluating the presence of rotavirus antigen in faecal
samples and indicates that this procedure is a very useful tool in ep
idemiological studies, but that other techniques are required to confi
rm the presence of virus. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd