Cultivation of human rotaviruses in cell culture.

Sixteen specimens of faeces from children with acute diarrhoea due to rotavirus were inoculated into MA-104 cells. Rotaviruses present in six of the specimens were successfully adapted to growth after serial passage. Two of these strains had "short RNA" patterns and had caused epidemics of diarrhoea in children in Melbourne, Australia from 1977 to 1979, or in children in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea in 1979. The remaining four strains had "long RNA" patterns. One of these four strains was of major epidemiological importance as a cause of childhood diarrhoea in Melbourne during 1981. The other three strains appeared identical and were isolated from babies born in a Melbourne obstetric hospital during 1977. All six strains were successfully adapted to stationary culture, but only four strains could be plaqued . Selection of strains of rotavirus for culture on the basis of their known epidemiological importance in different communities will increase information about clinically important strains throughout the world.