Abstract
The role of rodents in the epidemiology of zoonotic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection has been a subject of considerable debate. Seroprevalence studies suggest widespread HEV infection in commensal Rattus spp. rats, but experimental transmission has been largely unsuccessful and recovery of zoonotic genotype 3 HEV RNA from wild Rattus spp. rats has never been confirmed. We surveyed R. rattus and R. norvegicus rats from across the United States and several international populations by using a hemi-nested reverse transcription PCR approach. We isolated HEV RNA in liver tissues from 35 of 446 rats examined. All but 1 of these isolates was relegated to the zoonotic HEV genotype 3, and the remaining sequence represented the recently discovered rat genotype from the United States and Germany. HEV-positive rats were detected in urban and remote localities. Genetic analyses suggest all HEV genotype 3 isolates obtained from wild Rattus spp. rats were closely related.
Highlights
The role of rodents in the epidemiology of zoonotic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection has been a subject of considerable debate
Within the United States, HEV infections have been identified in travelers who have visited developing countries [7], and for several at-risk groups in the United States, the high number of reported seropositive persons is caused by swine–human contact [8,9]
This finding suggests that in addition to travel to HEV-endemic regions and swine– human contact, additional reservoirs of HEV infection exist in the United States, and evidence has accumulated indicating rodents as a potential HEV reservoir [14,15,16,17,18]
Summary
The role of rodents in the epidemiology of zoonotic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection has been a subject of considerable debate. Consumption of raw pork and wild game is uncommon in the United States, it is a common practice in other industrialized nations in which high HEV seroprevalence has been reported (i.e., France) [13]. This finding suggests that in addition to travel to HEV-endemic regions and swine– human contact, additional reservoirs of HEV infection exist in the United States, and evidence has accumulated indicating rodents as a potential HEV reservoir [14,15,16,17,18].
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