Rotavirus an emerging enteropathogen of man and animals: an overview.

Rota Viral infection is recognised as a significant global public health concern causing large numbers of potentially preventable illnesses and deaths, especially among young ones of man and animals. The paper presents an overview of the epidemiology, control, treatment, virology, diagnosis and the zoonotic aspects of the problem. Problems for further research are identified.

Sero-positivity of domestic animals against Japanese encephalitis in Bareilly area, U.P.

A study on seroprevalence of Japanese Encephalitis (JE), West Nile (WN) and Dengue-2 (DN-2) was undertaken in and around Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh to explore the role of non-human hosts in the natural cycle of these infections. A total of 1449 animal sera samples collected from 104 dogs, 170 pigs, 170 horses, 333 buffaloes, 252 cattle, 168 sheep and 252 goats were screened for antibodies against JE, WN and DN-2 by Micro-haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test employing 4 to 16 HA units of JE, WN and DN-2 antigens. The HI positivity against JE was found in dogs (55.77%) followed by pigs (40%), horses (37.65%), buffaloes (21.92%), goats (17.86%), sheep (2.38%) and cattle (1.98%). The seropositivity against WN was relatively lower with 24.04% in dogs, pigs (27.65%) horses (25.88%) buffaloes (13.81%), goats (6.75%), cattle (1.19%) and nil in sheep. The seropositivity against DN-2 was lowest among all the three infections with 15.88% in horses, in dogs (15.38), pigs (11.76%) buffaloes (7.81%) and 3.97% in goats. All the cattle and sheep sera gave negative results against DN-2 antigen. The study showed endemicity of the infections in this area.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli from an outbreak with cholerigenic syndromes of gastroenteritis.

In an outbreak of food-poisoning, 76 out of 200 students who had dined in an Institute mess experienced acute cholerigenic syndromes of gastroenteritis. Processing of the seven stool samples of affected students and remnants of 4 out of 5 type of food for isolation of bacterial pathogen(s) revealed only the presence of Escherichia coli which were serotyped as 020, 026, 045, 053 and one untypable (UT). Enterotoxigenicity testing of these isolates revealed serotypes 020, 026 of E. coli to be heat-labile enterotoxin producer when subjected to Biken test, Latex agglutination test and co-agglutination test. Based on the laboratory findings there are good reasons to believe that serotype 020 was responsible for this episode.