Canine parvovirus (CPV) and canine coronavirus (CCoV) are considered to be the main pathogens responsible for acute gastroenteritis in young dogs Greene and Decaro 2012). Recently, canine caliciviruses (CaCV), genus Norovirus and canine astroviruses (CaAstV) have been associated with outbreaks of enteritis in puppies that were either singly infected or coinfected with CCoV and/or CPV Martella and others 2008,Mesquita and others 2010,Ntafis and others 2010,Zhu and others 2011,Grellet and others 2012,Martella and others 2012). Previous reports have shown that CPV and/or CCoV are responsible for approximately 48 per cent of the enteritis cases in puppies in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Castro and others 2012). However, cases involving CaCV or CaAstV infections have not been described yet in South America. The purpose of this study was to perform the molecular characterisation of CaCV in faecal samples from puppies showing clinical signs of gastroenteritis using RT-PCR and sequence analysis. In addition, the unexpected detection of CaAstV in puppies with enteritis was reported.