A MINOR PREVALENT STRAIN IN A SEVERE OUTBREAK OF FOAL DIARRHEA ASSOCIATED WITH SEROTYPE-3 ROTAVIRUS

An epizootic of foal diarrhea due to serotype 3 rotavirus (RV) was obs erved in 89 of 168 cases (53%) during the period from March to July in 1987. A total of 51 strains of RV were isolated from the 62 diarrheal feces examined, and one isolate (CH-3) showed a unique electropheroty pe of viral RNA which differed from the others that widely prevailed o n this farm. No positive reaction was observed between strain CH-3 and each of the antisera against serotypes 1 to 12 of human and animal RV in neutralization tests. However, dsRNAs of the CH-3 virus were hybri dized with a probe prepared from a strain of equine serotype 3 RV.