A B S T R A C TBovine rotavirus (BRoV) and bovine coronavirus (BCoV) are major enteric viral pathogens responsible for calve diarrhoea. They are widespread both in dairy and beef cattle throughout the world and causing huge economic losses. The diagnosis of these agents is very difficult due to non-specific nature of lesions and the involvement of some intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors. We performed postmortem of 45 calves, which was below three months of age. Out of 45 necropscid calves, three (6.66%) cases were positive for BRoV and four (8.88%) cases were found positive for BCoV, screened by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Further RT-PCR positive cases were confirmed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in paraffin-embedded intestinal tissue sections. Three cases of enteritis caused by BRoV showed the hallmark lesions of the shortening and fusion of villi, denudation and infiltration of mononuclear cells in the lamina propria. The BRoV antigen distribution was prominent within the lining epithelium of the villi, peyer's patches in the ileum and strong immunoreactions in the lymphocytes and some macrophages of the mesenteric lymph nodes. Four cases in which BCoV was detected, grossly lesions characterized by colonic mucosa covered with thick, fibrinous and diphtheritic membrane. Histopathologically, jejunum showed skipping lesion of micro-abscesses in crypts. The BCoV antigen distribution was prominent within the necrotic crypts in the jejunum and cryptic micro-abscesses in the colon and ileum. It is the first report of BRoV and BCoV antigen demonstration in the jejunum, colon, ileum, Peyer's patches and mesenteric lymph nodes of naturally infected calves from India by using IHC.

An epidemiological study was conducted for detection of rotavirus by antigen ELISA kit in dairy calves from Central India (Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states) and North India (Uttar Pradesh state). Different epidemiological parameters like age, sex, parity, colour and consistency of faecal materials and seasonal changes in a year were recorded. A total of 816 faecal samples were screened and out of which 41 (5.02%) animals were found to be positive for rotavirus A. The higher prevalence was recorded in North India followed by Central India. Age-wise higher prevalence was recorded in calves under 1 month of age. Significantly (p < 0.05) high prevalence was noticed in male calves compared to female calves. Seasonally, the prevalence of RVA infection was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in winter season and in first parity of calves as compared to other season and parity. Prevalence of Rotavirus infection was higher in pasty yellow colour faecal materials than watery diarrhoea. The observations of the present study would provide the basis for further an effective explorative surveillance and epidemiological studies to know the real impact of rotavirus infection with associated risk factors in dairy calves of India.

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:The study was conducted at Nagpur Veterinary College, Nagpur, Maharashtra during 2009-10. The study had been conceptualized with overall objectives to assess the knowledge of improve animal husbandry practices and socio-economical, psychological characteristics of dairy farmers in adoption of improved animal husbandry practices. It is observed that, majority of the dairy farmers belonged to middle age group and obtained secondary education. Majority of respondents were in medium level of family size, land size, herd size, daily milk production, daily milk sale, annual income, social participation, utilization of information sources and attitude. Study reveals that, majority of respondents i.e. 79.04 per cent were in medium category with respect of their level of knowledge of improved animal husbandry practices, followed by high level of knowledge 8.58 per cent and 12.38 per cent in low level of knowledge. The practice wise knowledge study showed that, majority of the respondents had 44.14 per cent complete knowledge regarding health care practices, followed by clean milk production (40.00%), calf rearing (33.73), management (28.66), breeds and breeding (25.47), feeding (22.85), housing (15.91) and marketing (12.85). The least knowledge for Insurance practices (4.66).

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