ABSTRACT
Enteritises are considered important causes of morbidity and mortality in neonatal foals. Among the agents involved, coronavirus has been described as an etiologic agent of enterocolitis in horses and can act as a primary pathogen in young and immunocompromised foals. This study reports enteric disease associated with coronavirus in 69 thoroughbred foals, bred on a farm located in Aceguá, RS, Brazil. The animals with age between 45 to 90 days had diarrhea, prostration and dehydration. The clinical suspicion of the viral agent came from epidemiological data, the discarding of non-infectious causes, the presentation of clinical signs, and negative results in fecal samples upon parasitological and bacteriological tests. Coronavirus identification was performed by scanning electron microscopy by phase contrast in the stool samples from six foals with clinical enteritis.
KEY WORDS
Coronavirus; diarrhea; foals