Identification of co-infection by rotavirus and parvovirus in dogs with gastroenteritis in Mexico

Ortega, Ariadna Flores; Martínez-Castañeda, José Simón; Bautista-Gómez, Linda G.; Muñoz, Raúl Fajardo; Hernández, Israel Quijano

This report is the first study demonstrating the presence of circulating rotavirus in dogs from the State of Mexico. Although rotavirus is of little importance for veterinarians as it has low mortality rate, in the present study it was observed to play an important role in severity of viral gastroenteritis, especially when associated to canine parvovirus. On the other hand, although parvovirus is considered the most important pathogen in canine gastroenteritis, rotavirus is of special interest to public health due to its zoonotic potential. In support of this, there exist reports of inter-species transmission of canine rotavirus of the G3 group to children in Italy and Taiwan. 10 Although this is the first report of rotavirus in canines of the State of Mexico, future molecular epidemiology studies should be conducted to identify the circulating genotypes in dog populations throughout Mexico, as this will increase our understanding on the importance of rotavirus in dogs.