Prevalence of calf diarrhea caused by bovine group A rotavirus carrying G serotype 8 specificity.

One hundred and seventeen rectal fecal specimens were collected in 1995 and 1996 from calves with diarrhea in Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan. The bovine group A rotavirus was detected by enzyme immunoassay in 43 of 117 specimens and isolated from 33 of the 43 specimens that were positive. G serotype, P serotype, and P genotype of 33 isolates were identified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and 20 of 33 isolates (60.6%) were identified as G serotype 8. Thus, we discovered that calf diarrhea caused by bovine group A rotavirus carrying G serotype 8 specificity was prevalent in this research area during this research period. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the prevalence of calf diarrhea caused by the bovine group A rotavirus carrying G serotype 8 specificity.