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Identification Of A Ruminant Origin Group B Rotavirus Associated With Diarrhea Outbreaks In Foals, Tirth Uprety, Chithra C. Sreenivasan, Ben M. Hause, Ganwu Li, Solomon O. Odemuyiwa, Stephan Locke, Jocelynn Morgan, Li Zeng, William F. Gilsenan, Nathan Slovis, Laurie Metcalfe, Craig N. Carter, Peter J. Timoney, David W. Horohov, Dan Wang, Erdal Erol, Emma Adam, Feng Li

Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center Faculty Publications

Equine rotavirus group A (ERVA) is one of the most common causes of foal diarrhea. Starting in February 2021, there was an increase in the frequency of severe watery to hemorrhagic diarrhea cases in neonatal foals in Central Kentucky. Diagnostic investigation of fecal samples failed to detect evidence of diarrhea-causing pathogens including ERVA. Based on Illumina-based metagenomic sequencing, we identified a novel equine rotavirus group B (ERVB) in fecal specimens from the affected foals in the absence of any other known enteric pathogens. Interestingly, the protein sequence of all 11 segments had greater than 96% identity with group B …