Abstract
Little is known about the role of ticks in maintaining highly prevalent zoonotic viruses in wildlife, such as hepatitis E virus (HEV), which do not require ticks for transmission between animals and humans. In this cross-sectional study, adult female ticks were collected from Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) in autumn 2015 in Spain. HEV RNA in both ticks and wild boar was evaluated by RT-qPCR. Twenty-nine adult Hyalomma lusitanicum ticks were collected from 29 wild boars. HEV RNA was detected in a total of 10 tick (34.4%) and 11 wild boar serum samples (37.9%). In two cases, detectable HEV RNA was found in a wild boar but not in the tick collected from them. In contrast, one HEV-positive tick was collected from an HEV-negative wild boar. All viral sequences were consistent with genotype 3f. We describe for the first time the presence of HEV RNA in adult Hyalomma lusitanicum ticks.
Highlights
The role of ticks in the maintenance and spread of emerging viral zoonotic pathogens, whose main hosts are wildlife species, is well known (Ruiz-Fons et al, 2008; Baneth, 2014; MadisonAntenucci et al, 2020)
A total of 29 adult ticks, all identified as Hyalomma lusitanicum (Koch,1844), were collected from 29 wild boars hunted during the study period
hepatitis E virus (HEV) RNA was detected in a total of ticks (34.5%) and wild boars (37.9%) (Table 1)
Summary
The role of ticks in the maintenance and spread of emerging viral zoonotic pathogens, whose main hosts are wildlife species, is well known (Ruiz-Fons et al, 2008; Baneth, 2014; MadisonAntenucci et al, 2020). Of special concern are wild ungulates (deer and wild swine), species with wide distribution and high density, which allow the spread of tick-borne viruses in Europe (Kriz et al, 2014) In this sense, viruses belonging to families Flaviviridae (tick-borne encephalitis), Nairoviridae (Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever), and Phenuiviridae (severe fever with thrombocytopenia) have emerged in several European countries (Madison-Antenucci et al, 2020), such as Spain and the Czechia (Kriz et al, 2014; Moraga-Fernández et al, 2020), spread by wild boar. Principally wild boar (Sus scrofa), constitute the main wild reservoir of the virus, with a reported prevalence of infection of 20% (Rivero-Juarez et al, 2018), which means that wild boar meat consumption is an important route of transmission in Europe (Faber et al, 2018). Information on this point is of great interest with respect to increasing knowledge about HEV epidemiology
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