Faecal shedding of rotavirus vaccine in Chinese children after vaccination with Lanzhou lamb rotavirus vaccine

Lanzhou lamb rotavirus vaccine (LLR) is an oral live attenuated vaccine first licensed in China in 2000. To date, > 60 million doses of LLR have been distributed to children. However, very little is known about faecal shedding of LLR in children. Therefore, faecal samples (n = 1,184) were collected from 114 children for 15 days post-vaccination in September–November 2011/2012. Faecal shedding and viral loads were determined by an enzyme immunoassay kit (EIA) and real-time RT-PCR. The complete genome was sequenced and the vaccine strain was isolated by culture in MA104 cells. Approximately 14.0% (16/114) of children had rotavirus-positive samples by EIA for at least 1 day post-vaccination. Viral loads in EIA-positive samples ranged from < 1.0 × 103 to 1.9 × 108 copies/g. Faecal shedding occurred as early as post-vaccination day 2 and as late as post-vaccination day 13 and peaked on post-vaccination day 5–10. One LLR strain was isolated by culture in MA104 cells. Sequence analysis showed 99% identity with LLR prototype strain. Faecal shedding of LLR in stool is common within 15 days of LLR vaccination, indicating vaccine strains can replicate in human enteric tissues.