Open AccessDetection of Bovine Coronavirus in Healthy and Diarrheic Dairy Calves
Author(s) -
Gomez D.E.,
Arroyo L.G.,
Poljak Z.,
Viel L.,
Weese J.S.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of veterinary internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.356
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1939-1676
pISSN - 0891-6640
DOI - 10.1111/jvim.14811
Subject(s) - bovine coronavirus , feces , medicine , diarrhea , veterinary medicine , virology , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , gastroenterology , covid-19 , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Background BC oV is identified in both healthy and diarrheic calves, complicating its assessment as a primary pathogen. Objectives To investigate the detection rates of bovine coronavirus ( BC oV) in feces of healthy and diarrheic calves and to describe the usefulness of a pancoronavirus reverse transcriptase ( RT ) PCR (PanCoV‐ RT ‐ PCR ) assay to identify BC oV in samples of diarrheic calves. Animals Two hundred and eighty‐six calves <21 days. Calves with liquid or semiliquid feces, temperature >39.5°C, and inappetence were considered as cases, and those that had pasty or firm feces and normal physical examination were designated as controls. Methods Prospective case–control study. A specific BC oV‐ RT ‐ PCR assay was used to detect BC oV in fecal samples. Association between BC oV and health status was evaluated by exact and random effect logistic regression. Fecal (n = 28) and nasal (n = 8) samples from diarrheic calves were tested for the presence of BC oV by both the PanCoV‐ RT ‐ PCR and a specific BC oV‐ RT ‐ PCR assays. A Kappa coefficient test was used to assess the level of agreement of both assays. Results BC oV was detected in 55% (157/286) of calves; 46% (66/143), and 64% (91/143) of healthy and diarrheic calves, respectively. Diarrheic calves had higher odds of BC oV presence than healthy calves ( OR : 2.16, 95% CI : 1.26 to 3.83, P = 0.004). A good agreement between PanCoV‐ RT ‐ PCR and BC oV‐ RT ‐ PCR to detect BC oV was identified (κ = 0.68, 95% CI : 0.392 to 0.967; P < 0.001). Conclusions and Clinical Importance BC oV was more likely to be detected in diarrheic than healthy calves. The PanCoV‐ RT ‐ PCR assay can be a useful tool to detect CoV samples from diarrheic calves.