Background: Rotavirus C (RVC), a known etiological agent of diarrheal outbreaks, mainly inflicts swine population globally with sporadic incidence in human, cattle, ferret, mink and dog.

Objective: To demonstrate the presence of RVC in Indian swine population and characterization of its selected structural (VP6) and non-structural (NSP4 and NSP5) genes.

Methods: A total of 108 diarrheic samples from different regions of India were used. Isolated RNA was loaded onto polyacrylamide gel to screen for the presence of RVs through the identification of specific electrophoretic genomic migration pattern. To characterize the RVC strains, VP6 gene and NSP4 and NSP5 genes were amplified, sequenced and analyzed.

Results: Based on VP6 gene specific diagnostic RT-PCR, the presence of RVC was confirmed in 12.0% (13/108) piglet fecal specimens. The nucleotide sequence analysis of VP6 gene, encoding inner capsid protein, from selected porcine RVC (PoRVC) strains revealed more than 93% homologies to human RVC strains (HuRVC) of Eurasian origin. These strains were distant from hitherto reported PoRVCs and clustered with HuRVCs, owning I2 genotype. However, the two non-structural genes, i.e. NSP4 and NSP5, of these strains were found to be of swine type, signifying a re-assortment event that has occurred in the Indian swine population.

Conclusion: The findings indicate the presence of human-like RVC in Indian pigs and division of RVC clade with I2 genotype into further sub-clades. To the best of our knowledge, this appears to be the first report of RVC in Indian swine population. Incidence of human-like RVC VP6 gene in swine supports its subsequent zoonotic prospective.

背景：轮状病毒 C (RVC) 是一种已知的腹泻暴发病原体，主要影响全球猪群，在人、牛、雪貂、水貂和狗中零星发病。

目的：证明印度猪群中 RVC 的存在及其选定的结构 (VP6) 和非结构 (NSP4 和 NSP5) 基因的特征。

方法：总共使用了来自印度不同地区的 108 份腹泻样本。将分离的 RNA 加载到聚丙烯酰胺凝胶上，通过识别特定的电泳基因组迁移模式来筛选 RV 的存在。为了表征 RVC 菌株，对 VP6 基因以及 NSP4 和 NSP5 基因进行了扩增、测序和分析。

结果：基于 VP6 基因特异性诊断性 RT-PCR，确认在 12.0% (13/108) 仔猪粪便样本中存在 RVC。VP6 基因的核苷酸序列分析，编码内衣壳蛋白，来自选定的猪 RVC (PoRVC) 菌株，显示与欧亚起源的人类 RVC 菌株 (HuRVC) 的同源性超过 93%。这些菌株与迄今为止报道的 PoRVC 相距甚远，并与 HuRVC 聚集在一起，拥有 I2 基因型。然而，发现这些菌株的两个非结构基因，即 NSP4 和 NSP5 属于猪型，表明印度猪群中发生了重新分类事件。

结论：研究结果表明印度猪中存在类人 RVC，并且具有 I2 基因型的 RVC 进化枝分裂成更多的亚进化枝。据我们所知，这似乎是印度猪群 RVC 的第一份报告。猪中类人 RVC VP6 基因的发生支持其随后的人畜共患病前景。