The subject invention provides materials and methods for improving animal resistance to infection by intestinal viruses. This is accomplished by interfering with intestinal virus uptake employing methods that (1) reduce virus binding to receptors in the intestinal lining (2) introduce decoy receptors expressed in the mammary gland leading to decoy secretion in milk (3) produce decoy receptors by a variety of protein synthesis methods to provide decoy receptors to non-genetically modified animals, including humans and/or (4) administer a vector to a non-genetically modified animal which vector has been genetically modified to produce a decoy receptor.
