# Mouse Rotovirus Information



## SarahY

I have mouse rotovirus in my stud at the moment, as do many others. Rotovirus pretty much wiped out my silver fox line before I knew what it was. Not because it actually killed the mice, but because they grew up stunted and weak and thus I was left with no viable breeding adults. There seems to be a lot of it around so I thought I would post some information.

Adult mice carry rotovirus with no symptoms but this virus causes continuous greasy, yellow diarrhea in baby mice aged between four and fourteen days. Mice rarely die of rotovirus but it can cause long term stunted growth. It is spread by particles of faeces floating round in the air and each infected litter will subsequently reinfect the whole stud. Because of this, an eight week hiatus from breeding will stop rotovirus completely.

Babies exhibiting signs of rotovirus need extra help; daily cleaning up of their diarrhea is essential for their long term health. I've been cleaning my infected kittens with a cotton bud (Q-tip) soaked in warm water and the kittens which I've cleaned up every day have grown into healthy adults, whereas the ones I haven't cleaned remained stunted and eventually needed culling. Twice weekly cleaning out and disinfecting (at the very least) is also necessary for controlling this virus.

Remember, it's spread via infected babies' poo - so keep everything as clean as possible!

There is some more general information in these pages:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/171544.htm
http://dar.research.illinois.edu/Files/EDIM.pdf
http://www.criver.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/rm_ld_r_Mouse_Rotavirus.pdf
http://www.cerberus.net.au/agents.php?agentId=16

Some pictures of kittens with rotovirus:


----------



## MojoMouse

Thank you for posting about this! The links are very informative, and the pics you took will be very useful for people to identify the viral infection early. Obviously, access to information and timely intervention could save an entire mousery!


----------



## SarahY

Yes, definitely! Thank you, I really hope this helps someone. It's heartbreaking to see litter after litter with this


----------



## Wight Isle Stud

The virus is extremely numerous, there are hundreds of thousands in one infected feces. It Takes apparently only 150 to start it off in one mouse. As the spread can be on dust particles in the air, let alone all other routes as stated in Sarahs Literature, You may as well write the mousery off as being a sterile area. Once it shows its there to stay. When it hit me I had multiple litters go down with it within days, as soon as they furred up that was it. The doe ingests millions of virus as she tries to clean the Babies. I used F10 disinfectant which can be applied to, and sprayed upon the babies and adults. The dried plug must be cleared around the anus or the baby will die. However, even though it appears that the whole litter is infected, they aren't. The whole litter will be covered in yellow excrement,but if the one or perhaps three with it are culled ( check anus )and the others washed it seems to eradicate it from the nest. When I had this I changed my culling Policy . waiting untill they had furred up, and culled infected ones only. This then leads on to pregnant does in the Stud. If its only babies that are effected, then removing a pregnant does from the infected enviroment should work. I placed all my preganant does in sterilized cages in another environment. This was 100% successful- no virus. feed these first !!. dont forget this virus is so prolific you need to wash the doe as well, i literally blasted them with F10. To be honest, even though I saved every baby, they will never make up to exhibition stock. The main stud was very heavily disinfected, all Does that have had a Rota litter will continue to shed the virus for up to ten days after infection. it can be seen that even though this is probably the very worse infection we can have, it is entirely survivable. Therfore, 10 days after the last litter is clear of any signs, and heavy disinfection of every surface, should clear the virus from the main mousery. However, it is so prolific that the 6 week wait to allow the virus to die on its own has to be worth it.


----------



## candycorn

Where does it origionate? From new stock coming in?


----------



## SarahY

I believe it came into my stud on some adult mice I got in, but I imagine it could be picked up many different ways.


----------



## PPVallhunds

Thanks for the post Sarah, ive just checked my mice and my youngest fluffs who are about a week all have a little dryed bright orange poop on them. Cleared it off and ive taken all buack away form the does. Given the boxes a good wash today. So from reading thosse links all you need to do is stop breeding for a while and disenfect right?

Will all the babies who have it get stunted groth? I noticed my 3 slightly older guys (2 weeks) dont look quite right, there bums are clean but they are all in tougher so i would asume they do.


----------



## Wight Isle Stud

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... /?page=13- This one is very informative as well. and describes the use of a filter cage to prevent infection. When I had the virus I found by removing a pregnant doe from the environment to a disinfected cage all was well with the litter.


----------



## MojoMouse

That link doesn't seem to work. Do you need a subscription to view the articles?


----------



## Wight Isle Stud

Thats the search page.........put in EDIM, then go to article 29.


----------



## PPVallhunds

just been to check on them and mums seem to be keeping up with it, they only had a tiny bit of dryed poop there


----------

