Detection of porcine rotavirus type G9 and of a mixture of types G1 and G5associated with Wa-like VP4 specificity: Evidence for natural human-porcine genetic reassortment

Rotavirus type G5 is a primarily porcine pathogen that has caused frequent and widespread diarrhea in children in Brazil and in piglets elsewhere. Ini tial results on the rotavirus types circulating in diarrheic piglets in Bra zil disclosed a high diversity of strains with distinct G types including G 1, G4, G5, and G9 and the novelty of P[8], the predominant human P specific ity type. Those results add strong evidence for the emergence of new strain s through natural reassortment between rotaviruses of human and porcine ori gins.