پژمان محمودی کوهی

Background: New-born calf diarrhea is an important disease which may result in economic losses. Among various causative agents, bovine coronavirus (BCV) is a common infectious cause of diarrhea in calves aged between 4 and 30 days old. Methods: A total of 120 fecal samples were collected from diarrheic calves (aged <1 month) of industrial dairy farms in Hamedan province. Total RNA was first extracted from each fecal sample using YTzol Pure RNA extraction kit (Yekta Tajhiz Azma). The RNA samples were then examined for detecting BCV specific genome RNA using RT-PCR. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first report of BCV infection in industrial dairy farms of Hamedan. However, the rate of BCV infection was lower than reports from other parts of Iran. Nevertheless, co-infection of BCV and salmonella suggests that it is necessary to take appropriate controlling measures. Results: The results showed that samples from 3 calves (2.5%) were infected with BCV. It was interesting that these animals were also positive for Salmonella simultaneously.