Abstract
An increasing number of indigenous cases of hepatitis E caused by genotype 3 viruses (HEV-3) have been diagnosed all around the word, particularly in industrialized countries. Hepatitis E is a zoonotic disease and accumulating evidence indicates that domestic pigs and wild boars are the main reservoirs of HEV-3. A detailed analysis of HEV-3 subtypes could help to determine the interplay of human activity, the role of animals as reservoirs and cross species transmission. Although complete genome sequences are most appropriate for HEV subtype determination, in most cases only partial genomic sequences are available. We therefore carried out a subtype classification analysis, which uses regions from all three open reading frames of the genome. Using this approach, more than 1000 published HEV-3 isolates were subtyped. Newly recovered HEV partial sequences from hunted German wild boars were also included in this study. These sequences were assigned to genotype 3 and clustered within subtype 3a, 3i and, unexpectedly, one of them within the subtype 3b, a first non-human report of this subtype in Europe.
Highlights
The Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a causative agent of acute hepatitis in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America where it is transmitted primarily via contaminated drinking water
We designed reverse transcription (RT)-PCR assays for screening, quantification and genotyping of HEV-3 strains, and detected viral RNA in wild boar samples from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany
Twelve strains clustered into subtypes 3a, 3i and, unexpectedly, 3b, which is a common subtype in Japan, but has not been reported in animals in Europe
Summary
The Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a causative agent of acute hepatitis in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America where it is transmitted primarily via contaminated drinking water. Sporadic cases of HEV are reported in developed countries, partially imported by travelers from endemic areas, but there are an increasing number of reports of autochthonous HIV infections. Studies on HEV RNA detection in animals revealed, that HEV is ubiquitous in domestic pigs and wild boars throughout Europe [8]. This includes the United Kingdom [9], France [10], Germany [11,12,13,14,15], Hungary [16], Italy [17,18], The Netherlands [19,20], Belgium [21], Spain [22], Slovenia [23], Czech
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