Porcine rotavirus-like virus (group B rotavirus): characterization and pathogenicity for gnotobiotic pigs.

A rotavirus-like virus (RVLV) was isolated from a diarrheic pig from an Ohio swine herd. This virus infected villous enterocytes throughout the small intestine of gnotobiotic pigs and induced an acute, transitory diarrhea. Complete virions were rarely observed in the intestinal contents of infected animals; the predominant particle detected by immune electron microscopy was a corelike particle 52 nm in diameter. The genome of the porcine RVLV was composed of 11 discrete segments of double-stranded RNA that produced an electropherotype distinct from the genome electropherotypes of reovirus, rotavirus, and porcine pararotavirus. Porcine RVLV was antigenically unrelated to rotavirus, porcine pararotavirus, or reovirus but was antigenically related to a bovine RVLV.