Detection of Bovine Coronavirus in Healthy and Diarrheic Dairy Calves

Abstract

Background BCoV is identified in both healthy and diarrheic calves, complicating its assessment as a primary pathogen.ObjectivesTo investigate the detection rates of bovine coronavirus (BCoV) in feces of healthy and diarrheic calves and to describe the usefulness of a pancoronavirus reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR (PanCoV‐RT‐PCR) assay to identify BCoV in samples of diarrheic calves.AnimalsTwo hundred and eighty‐six calves <21 days. Calves with liquid or semiliquid feces, temperature >39.5°C, and inappetence were considered as cases, and those that had pasty or firm feces and normal physical examination were designated as controls.MethodsProspective case–control study. A specific BCoV‐RT‐PCR assay was used to detect BCoV in fecal samples. Association between BCoV and health status was evaluated by exact and random effect logistic regression. Fecal (n = 28) and nasal (n = 8) samples from diarrheic calves were tested for the presence of BCoV by both the PanCoV‐RT‐PCR and a specific BCoV‐RT‐PCR assays. A Kappa coefficient test was used to assess the level of agreement of both assays.Results BCoV was detected in 55% (157/286) of calves; 46% (66/143), and 64% (91/143) of healthy and diarrheic calves, respectively. Diarrheic calves had higher odds of BCoV presence than healthy calves (OR: 2.16, 95% CI: 1.26 to 3.83, P = 0.004). A good agreement between PanCoV‐RT‐PCR and BCoV‐RT‐PCR to detect BCoV was identified (κ = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.392 to 0.967; P < 0.001).Conclusions and Clinical Importance BCoV was more likely to be detected in diarrheic than healthy calves. The PanCoV‐RT‐PCR assay can be a useful tool to detect CoV samples from diarrheic calves.

Global Transmission, Spatial Segregation, and Recombination Determine the Long-Term Evolution and Epidemiology of Bovine Coronaviruses

“…However, we found variation in evolution rates between the European and non-European lineages indicating differences in virus ecology.Viruses 2020, 12, 534 2 of 16 epithelium damage, [7] and altering commensal microbiota and local biofilm [8][9][10], thus leading to complex secondary bacterial infections [8,10,11].BCoV is a pneumoenteric virus frequently isolated from the fecal samples of diarrheic calves [12-15] and from upper and lower respiratory tract samples during BRD episodes worldwide [16][17][18][19]. While both forms of BCoV infection are widespread with high prevalence among cattle [12,13,15,20,21] and wild ruminants [22], the putative differences between strains isolated from enteric and respiratory tracts are still not clear, and it is unknown whether these differences are related to tissue tropism or simply to distinct times and locations of isolation. Some reports indeed suggest that all the BCoV are similar at genomic and antigenic levels [18,23], while others suggest that enteric and respiratory strains are genetically and antigenically different [24,25].…”

Specific Detection of Bovine Coronavirus N Protein with TaqMan Probe qRT-PCR

“…Additionally, BCoV has been identified in healthy calves, which complicate the assessment of its role as a primary pathogen [7,20].…”

“…BCoV also resulted in yak diarrhea of China [10]. BCoV was more likely to be detected in diarrheic calves than healthy calves [7]. It is very urgent to early diagnose and control dairy calves diarrhea [12].…”

“…It is very urgent to early diagnose and control dairy calves diarrhea [12]. However, there are few reports on Mecular characterization of bovine coronavirus, and little data exists apart from serological studies [7,8].…”

Orta Çin’de Sığır Koronavirusun Tam Uzunlukta Spike Genine Dayalı Tespiti ve Moleküler Karakterizasyonu

“…Betacoronaviruses have a broad range of hosts, such as humans (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, MERS-CoV [2] , and human coronavirus OC43, HCoV-OC43), mice (mouse hepatitis coronavirus, MHV), and horses (equine coronavirus [3] , ECoV). BCoV infection can cause mild to severe diarrhoea in new-born calves, winter dysentery in adult cattle and respiratory disorders in cattle of all ages [4][5][6] , which causes dramatic a reduction in milk production in dairy herds and loss of body condition in both calves and adult cattle, accompanied by depression and anorexia, leading to serious economic losses [7] . BCoV has been identified in many countries worldwide.…”