Human rotavirus HCR3 possesses a genomic RNA constellation indistinguishable from that of feline and canine rotaviruses

Infection and spread of group A rotaviruses under natural conditions are mo stly limited to one animal host species. However, rare molecular evidence e xists for interspecies transmission by whole virions of animal rotaviruses to humans. Human rotavirus strain HCR3, which was isolated in 1984 from a h ealthy infant in Philadelphia, U.S.A. was shown by RNA-RNA hybridization to form 11 hybrid bands with feline rotavirus strain FRV64 and canine rotavir us strains CU-1 and K9, but not with rotaviruses commonly found in humans. Thus, HCR3 was concluded to be originally a rotavirus circulating in cats a nd dogs and accidental interspecies transmission by whole virions to humans was likely to have occurred in the past.