Separation and properties of enterovirus and reovirus recovered from a fecal sample of calf with diarrhea.

In April, 1971, a disease with pyrexia and diarrhea as main symptoms broke out collectively among calves. Fecal samples were collected from calves involved and inoculated into bovine kidney (BK) cell cultures. As a result, the diarrheal feces of one calf were suspected to contain two agents simultaneously. One agent (C-121 E strain) was isolated from the primary infected BK cell culture fluid by terminal dilution passages. It had been predominant in replication and shown a cytopathic effect which gave rise to a granular appearance in the early stage of culture. The other agent (C-121 R strain) was isolated from the primary infected BK cell culture fluid by neutralizing the C-121 E strain contained in this fluid with antiserum against this strain. It caused cytoplasmic inclusion bodies to form. On the basis of their physico-chemical properties, the C-121 E strain was identified as bovine enterovirus and the C-121 R strain as reovirus. Serological tests indicated that some of the affected calves had been infected not only with the two strains isolated, but also with bovine viral diarrhea virus, bovine adenovirus type 7, and bovine parvovirus.