[Attempt at the experimental reproduction of rotavirus diarrhea in newborn calves deprived of colostrum].

Colostrum-deprived newborn calves were orally inoculated with different doses of cell-culture bovine rotavirus or with bacterium-free filtrates of calf stools containing rotavirus. None of the animals that received high doses of cell-culture rotavirus developed diarrhoea or any other clinical sign, although all of them excreted virus for several days and produced specific antibodies; calves inoculated with lower doses of cell-culture virus or with stool filtrates showed a transient diarrhoea 48 h after inoculation. Such paradoxical results might be due to a phenomenon of interference, as bovine rotavirus is susceptible to interferon. In experimental conditions, rotavirus produces only a mild and transient diarrhoea: this contrasts with the situation observed in farms, where that virus may provoke important problems. In association with the virus itself, numerous other factors such as the environmental conditions or the response of the calf to the infection also play a role in the evolution of the disease.