Effect of High Pressure Processing on a Wide Variety of Human Noroviruses Naturally Present in Aqua-Cultured Japanese Oysters

Abstract

The contamination of oysters with human norovirus (HuNoV) poses a human health risk, as oysters are often consumed raw. In this study, the effect of high pressure processing (HPP) on a wide variety of HuNoVs naturally present in aqua-cultured Japanese oysters was determined through a polymerase chain reaction-based method with enzymatic pretreatment, to distinguish between infectious HuNoV. Among five batches, genogroup I. genotype 1 (GI.1), GI.2, GI.3, and GI.8 HuNoV were detected from only one oyster not treated with HPP in the fifth batch, while genogroup II. genotype 1 to 4 (GII.1 to 4), GII.6, GII.8., GII.9, GII.13, GII.16, GII.17, and GII.22 HuNoV were detected from oysters not treated with HPP in all tested batches as determined by next-generation sequencing analysis. Neither GI nor GII HuNoV was detected in the oysters of any of the batches after HPP treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effect of HPP on a wide variety of HuNoVs naturally present in aqua-cultured oysters.