Response to the Letter to the Editor concerning 'Absence of hepatitis E virus circulation in wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis) in Mediterranean ecosystems in Spain' by Caballero-Gómez et al. (Transbound Emerg Dis; 2020: https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.13478).

Abstract

We are grateful to A. Lopes and J. Abrantes for their interest in our paper and for providing valuable new data about hepatitis E virus (HEV) epidemiology in European wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in the Iberian Peninsula. Their letter described a seroprevalence of 4.1% (three out 74 animals) in this species in southern Portugal. While they consider that the results of the two studies contradict each other, we do not see it in quite that way.