We describe the emergence of a nephropathogenic avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) with a novel genotype in India. The Indian IBV isolate exhibited a relatively high degree of sequence divergence with reference strains. The highest homology was observed with strain 6/82 (68%) and the least homology with strain Mex/1765/99 (34.3%).

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Experiments in 3 weeks old albino mice with Toxocara canis and sublethal infection with JE virus established a marked synergestic effect in dually infected mice. The results are discussed to indicate the possible role of visceral larva migrans in creating exploxive outbreaks of "acute encephalopathy syndrome" in individuals having simultaneous infection with a virus (es) which, alone, might produce only mild illness. The nature of the possible mechanisms involved yet remains to be understood.

Oral delivery of specific IgY has been reported to be beneficial against rotavirus infection. However, the production of IgYs against globally prevalent human rotavirus (HRV) serotypes and their evaluation detailing the influence on the virological/histopathological consequences have not been reported to date. In the present study, anti-HRVIgY was generated in the eggs of specific pathogen free hens immunized with HRV serotypes G1 - G4 and G9 independently. Purified anti-HRVIgY preparations were tested to determine the ELISA and neutralizing antibody titers respectively in an indirect ELISA and cell culture based neutralization assay. Efficacy of pre and post infection treatment of anti-HRV-3IgY was assessed in an infant BALB/c mouse model of human rotavirus infection by monitoring percent diarrhea, severity and duration of diarrhea, intestinal viral load and histopathology. High (1:64000 - 1:512000) titered anti-HRVIgYs were obtained from the egg yolk of immunized hens with peak titer value (1:256000/1:512000) at 40 - 60 day of immunization. <i>In-vitro</i>, each of the anti-HRVIgY preparations showed the presence of multiserotypic neutralizing activity with high (1:1600 - ≥1:6400) homologous and low (≤1:50 - 1:800) heterologous titers. However, anti-HRV-3IgY neutralized all of the serotypes tested in the study indicating broader <i>in-vitro</i> neutralizing activity. In mice, post exposure treatment with anti-HRV-3IgY significantly reduced the extent of diarrhea and intestinal virus load and inhibited histopathological changes whereas pre exposure anti-HRV-3IgY treatment imparted immediate protection from development of rotavirus gastroenteritis. Thus, the anti-HRVIgY administered orally decreased morbidity and disease incidences in mice suggesting its potential implication in prophylactic and therapeutic usage in human to achieve reduction in rotavirus disease burden