A comparison of four methods for detecting rotavirus in faeces of bovine calves

The purpose of the study was to compare the efficacy of four techniques to detect rotavirus in faeces from bovine calves with diarrhoea. The techniques used were an agar gel precipitation test (AGPT), discontinuous counter-immunoelectrophoresis (DCIE), an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with silver staining (PAGE-SS). Faecal samples, 20 each from cow and buffalo calves with diarrhoea from the government cattle farms and the farm of the Agricultural University of Haryana state, India, were tested. PAGE-SS and ELISA were found to be similar in their ability to detect rotavirus antigen, but both methods were found to be significantly superior to DCIE and AGPT (p less than 0.01).