Molecular diagnosis of torovirus infection in cattle from the northeastern region of São Paulo State and the southwestern region of Minas Gerais State

• Grant number: 11/00211-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2011
• End date: December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Luiz Moro de Sousa
• Grantee: Anna Luiza Farias Alencar
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The enteric diseases associated with diarrhea, dehydration and weight loss are a major health problem of cattle worldwide, contributing to significant morbidity and mortality especially among newborns. In this context, demands for improving the laboratory diagnosis of infectious enteric diseases became constant, given the economic losses involved. Bovine torovirus is among the major viral enteropathogens of worldwide distribution and recent history on which the studies in Brazil remain incipient. Therefore, investigations based on the detection of bovine torovirus circulating in São Paulo and Minas Gerais States, particularly in the contiguous São Paulo Northeast and Minas Gerais Southwest regions, are important to understand the possible distribution of this virus with direct consequences on the etiology and epidemiology of viral enteric diseases of cattle in these regions. In this sense, this project aims the molecular diagnosis of bovine torovirus infection through RT-PCR and nested-PCR techniques, using bovine stool samples collected from diarrheic and non-diarrheic animals of different ages.