Viruses normally associated with man, or antibodies to such viruses, were found in animals in two villages in West Bengal during a 6-month survey. Eleven serotypes were isolated from the feces of seven vertebrate species and one serotype from flies. In one of the villages, echovirus 7 was most frequently isolated at the start of the study and was obtained from six species, including both mammals and birds, whereas poliovirus 1 occurred in two species at the end of the study. Repeated isolations were made from two dogs over a 2- to 3-month period. The coprophagous, terrestrial species (dogs and chickens) yielded the highest number of isolates and the highest number of serotypes, whereas the primarily nonterrestrial species (monkeys and house crows) yielded the least number of isolates and serotypes. Most of the cattle and some of the goats had antibodies to a Hong Kong (H
3N
2)-like strain of influenza. The viruses occurred with a frequency that may have been proportional to the abundance of each serotype in the environment. No clinical symptoms were observed in the viral-positive animals.
Key words animals - ecology - adenovirus - enterovirus - influenza A
This research was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service through Research Grant No. 5 RO7 AI100048-13 from the National Institutes of Health to The Johns Hopkins University International Center for Medical Research.