Evaluation of HBV-Like Circulation in Wild and Farm Animals from Brazil and Uruguay.

Yasmine Rangel Vieira ,Gabriel Carvalho De Macedo ,Moyra Machado Portilho ,Frederico Gemesio Lemos ,Fabiana Lopes Rocha ,Flávia Fairbanks Lima De Oliveira ,João Bosco Vilela Campos ,Débora Regina Lopes Dos Santos ,José Luís Passos Cordeiro ,Lívia Melo Villar ,Namor Pinheiro Zimmermann ,Santiago Mirazo ,A O Pellegrin ,Fernanda Cavalcanti De Azevedo ,Fernando Queiroz De Almeida ,Vanessa Salete De Paula ,Luana Avila Giorgia Dimache ,Igor Alexandre S Péres ,Martha Lima Brandão ,Ubiratan Piovezan ,Alexandro Guterres ,Heitor Miraglia Herrera ,Marcelo Alves Pinto

doi:10.3390/ijerph16152679

Abstract

The origin of the hepatitis B virus is a subject of wide deliberation among researchers. As a result, increasing academic interest has focused on the spread of the virus in different animal species. However, the sources of viral infection for many of these animals are unknown since transmission may occur from animal to animal, human to human, animal to human, and human to animal. The aim of this study was to evaluate hepadnavirus circulation in wild and farm animals (including animals raised under wild or free conditions) from different sites in Brazil and Uruguay using serological and molecular tools. A total of 487 domestic wild and farm animals were screened for hepatitis B virus (HBV) serological markers and tested via quantitative and qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect viral DNA. We report evidence of HBsAg (surface antigen of HBV) and total anti-HBc (HBV core antigen) markers as well as low-copy hepadnavirus DNA among domestic and wild animals. According to our results, which were confirmed by partial genome sequencing, as the proximity between humans and animals increases, the potential for pathogen dispersal also increases. A wider knowledge and understanding of reverse zoonoses should be sought for an effective One Health response.

Highlights

The family Hepadnaviridae consists of hepatotropic enveloped viruses containing partially double-stranded circular DNA that replicates by reverse transcription [1]
The origin of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is controversial [25], and many hypotheses have been postulated regarding the emergence of the virus based on its viral evolution rate and hepadnavirus nucleotide sequences the emergence of the virus based on its viral evolution rate and hepadnavirus nucleotide sequences from hosts already described in the literature
Because of the diversity of the investigated species, these results indicate that swine could serve as a potential experimental model of animal infection, which is important because the development of such a model represents a current challenge to advancing research on HBV replication and new antivirals [20]

Summary

Introduction

The family Hepadnaviridae consists of hepatotropic enveloped viruses containing partially double-stranded circular DNA that replicates by reverse transcription [1]. These viruses are classified into the genera Orthohepadnavirus (mammals) and Avihepadnavirus (birds). The creation of a novel genus assigned to an HBV-like virus circulating among fish has been proposed [24]. Based on these data, hepadnaviruses might be more ancient than previously thought (>200 million years) [25], and the list of candidate species that may serve as hepadnavirus hosts or reservoirs is longer than expected

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Conclusion