Antigenic Detection of Enteric Pathogens Associated with Neonatal Calf Diarrhoea

The present study was undertaken to detect antigens of bovine rotavirus (BoRV), bovine coronavirus (BoCV), E. coli F5 attachment factor and Cryptosporidium from faecal samples of healthy and diarrheic neonatal calves (0–3 months). A total of 132 faecal samples comprising 38 diarrheic and 94 non-diarrheic calf samples collected from various places of North India (Bareilly, Hisar, Meerut and Mathura from August 2015 to May 2018) were screened by using multiplex ELISA kit (Bio-X Diagnostics, Belgium) for antigenic detection of above mentioned pathogens. Study revealed the antigenic detection of Cryptosporidium spp. in 19 (14.39%), rotavirus in 11 (8.33%), coronavirus in 3 (2.27%), E. coli K5 in 2 (1.51%) and samples. Overall, 11 (28.94%) of 38 diarrheic samples and 24 (25.53%) of 94 non-diarrheic samples were positive for different pathogens. A representative number of positive and negative samples were tested by RT-PCR for BoRV and BoCV virus as well as staining for Cryptosporidium spp. The results were consistent with that of multiplex ELISA kit. Therefore, the ELISA technique used in the study was found reliable, simple and quick to use and is particularly suited for analyzing large number of samples.