Rotavirus gastroenteritis associated with severe dehydration mainly affect the population of children under five years and especially before the age of 1 year both in the developed and developing countries. The WHO therefore recommends the administration of several doses of rotavirus vaccines to children from 4 to 6 weeks old [
15]. In countries like Côte d’Ivoire where rotavirus vaccine is yet to be introduced, monitoring of rotavirus disease as well as circulating strains would be necessary to assess the impact of the vaccine on rotaviruses when it is introduced. This study provides data for sentinel monitoring of rotavirus diarrhoea from 2010 to 2013 pre-vaccine introduction era in Côte d’Ivoire. Children under 12 months of age were the most susceptible to gastroenteritis and this observation compares with previous studies carried out in Côte d’Ivoire from 2000 to 2010 [
16,
17]. In sub-Saharan Africa more than 40% of cases of acute diarrhoea are attributed to rotaviruses with a high prevalence in children under 2 years of age [
18]. During the four year study period, the prevalence of rotavirus associated diarrhoea of 27.1% was significantly lower, but comparable to pre-monitoring studies conducted in Uganda and elsewhere in Côte d’Ivoire that reported rotavirus prevalence of 28.9% from 2000 to 2004 and 28. 6% from 2007 to 2009 respectively [
16,
19]. In other west African countries however, prevalence ranging from 34 to 48% have been observed [
20,
21] A study on the viral etiology of acute gastroenteritis in Burkinabe children under five found that rotaviruses were predominant with 63.5% prevalence rate [
22]. Peak of viral infection was observed between July and August corresponding to the rainy and wet season as already not established. Although several studies from sub-Saharan African countries point for a higher prevalence of RVA infection in the dry season [
23]. Rotavirus diarrhoea is mainly associated with five genotypes; G1, G2-G4, G9 and P[8] with G1P[8] genotype combination commonly associated with infections worldwide [
24]. Over the four year period of study, temporal fluctuations and variability in the frequency of rotavirus genotype combinations was observed from one rotavirus season to the other. The study identified six G- (G1, G2, G3, G8, G10, G12) and 4 P-genotypes (P[8], P[6], P[4], P[10]) occurring in diverse genotype combinations. Interestingly, though rotaviruses with the common G1P[8] genotype combination were associated with infections over the entire study period at varying frequencies, the atypical rotavirus strains G12P[8] and G12P[6] were the most prevalent and together were responsible for over 43% of all rotavirus infections in Ivorian children. Formally sporadically detected, recent publications have described this G12 genotype as important emerging agents of acute gastroenteritis [
25]. This genotype was also isolated in Gabon and some parts of Europe around the same period as this study [
26]. It however remains unclear if these G12 genotypes are transient or will become established within our settings. Close association of humans with domesticated animals in most countries of the developing region lead to gene reassortment events within commonly circulating rotavirus strains thus giving rise to a large genomic diversity and frequent occurrence of mixed infections [
27]. Unlike previous reports of high percentage of mixed genotype detection [
28,
29], this study observed less than 2% of mixed genotypes circulating within the study population. Findings from this present study represents pre-vaccination data that may be useful in future when assessing the effectiveness of any introduced rotavirus vaccine. Knowledge on genotype distribution over the years will also enable a better monitoring of the epidemiological evolution of rotavirus strains.