Isolation from chickens of a rotavirus lacking the rotavirus group antigen

A virus, designated 132 virus, was isolated from the faeces of chickens in chick embryo liver cell cultures. The morphology and morphogenesis of 132 virus were indistinguishable from that of rotaviruses. The nucleic acid of 132 virus had the nuclease resistance of double-stranded RNA, and was separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis into 11 segments with mol. wt. ranging from 2.07 x 10(6) to 0.20 x 10(6). SPF chickens were susceptible to oral infection with 132 virus, which replicated in the villous epithelial cells of the small intestine. 132 virus was therefore a rotavirus by morphological, biochemical and biological criteria. However, by immunofluorescence it was not possible to demonstrate an antigenic relationship between 132 virus and known avian and mammalian rotaviruses, indicating that 132 virus does not possess the group antigen shared by all previously characterized rotaviruses. This finding has implications for the diagnosis of rotavirus infections by serological tests.