Group C rotaviruses in humans

Abstract

Atypical rotaviruses obtained from human feces from Australia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom were shown by a combination of techniques--immunoelectron microscopy, immunofluorescence, genome profile analysis, terminal fingerprint analysis of genome segments, and dot-blot hybridization--to be related to group C porcine rotaviruses. The prevalence of antibody to group C rotaviruses was found to be low in human sera and immunoglobulin pools from six countries. No signs of infection were obtained when one of the human viruses was inoculated into gnotobiotic piglets. We conclude that the atypical human viruses are the first examples of group C rotaviruses in humans.