Journal
VETERINARY MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 132, Issue 1-2, Pages 47-55Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2008.04.028
Keywords
Hepatitis E (HEV); Single-stranded RNA virus; Prevalence; Infection; Swine; Genotype 3; Zoonosis
Categories
Funding
- European Commission
- DG Research Quality of Life Program 6th Framework [SP22-CT-2004-502571, FP6-2002-SSP-1]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes acute hepatitis in humans, and infects several animal species, mostly asymptomatically. Swine and human HEV strains are genetically related suggesting both a zoonotic and a possible foodborne transmission. The prevalence of swine HEV was investigated in 274 randomly selected pigs from six different swine farms of Northern Italy, testing viral RNA in stools by nested reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction. HEV genome was detected in 115 stools (42%). All farms resulted positive for HEV, with a prevalence ranging between 12.8% and 72.5%. HEV-positive pigs were detected in all age groups and production stages tested, although infection was more prevalent in weaners than in the older fatteners (42.2% vs. 27.0%). Genetic characterization of swine strains identified was performed by sequencing and database alignment. Phylogenetic analysis on the nucleotide sequences from 16 positive PCR products indicated that all strains belonged to genotype 3. In particular, one group of seven Italian strains clustered close (91.6-96.2% identity) to human and swine European HEV strains. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available