Hepatitis E Virus in Wild Boars and Spillover Infection in Red and Roe Deer, Germany, 2013–2015

Anheyer-Behmenburg, H.; Szabo, Kathrin; Schotte, Ulrich; Binder, Alfred; Klein, Günter; Johne, Reimar

doi:10.3201/eid2301.161169

Cited by 92 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In this study, we observed a median viral load of 10 7 GE/gr. This value is comparable to previous studies (Anheyer‐Behmenburg et al., ; Kamar et al., ). In the absence of in vitro cultivation, detection of HEV RNA does not confirm the viability of the virus.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…This study confirmed a wide heterogeneity of sequenced wild boar HEV strains that belonged to at least two subtypes HEV‐3c and HEV‐3f. The sequence analyses revealed that HEV‐3c is frequent, as observed in other studies conducted in both Italy and Europe (Anheyer‐Behmenburg et al., ; Aprea et al., ; Di Profio et al., ; Dorn‐In et al., ; Rutjes et al., , ; Schielke et al., ; Serracca et al., ; Thiry, Mauroy, et al., ; Vina‐Rodriguez et al., ). In Italy, HEV‐3c is less frequent detected in pigs, where the main subtypes are HEV‐3f and HEV3‐e.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…This result confirms previous findings that adult pigs showed a lower probability of infection (Di Bartolo et al., ) while wild boars can be infected at different ages (Martelli et al., ). This can be linked to the chronic infection described in wild boar (Schlosser, Vina‐Rodriguez, Fast, Groschup, & Eiden, ) or continuous re‐infection due to incomplete or short‐lasting immunity (Anheyer‐Behmenburg et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wild boar HEV‐positive animals were detected in each age classes, including juveniles of 4 months of age, and animals older than 24 months (Martelli et al., ; Sonoda et al., ). In an interesting manner, a recent study described detection of HEV RNA in 89% of muscle sampled from wild boar HEV‐positive in liver (Anheyer‐Behmenburg et al., ). In Italy, the prevalence of HEV in wild boar ranges between 1.5% from faeces and 1.9% up to 33.7% from liver or bile tested.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular survey of HEV infection in wild boar population in Italy

Sabato

Ostanello

Grossi

et al. 2018

Transbound Emerg Dis

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Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an RNA virus causing an acute generally self-limited disease in humans. An increasing number of autochthonous cases linked to zoonotic transmission of HEV genotype 3 have been reported over the last 10 years in Europe. Pigs and wild boars are considered the main reservoirs. The principal route of transmission in Europe is food-borne, linked by direct or indirect evidence to the consumption of raw or undercooked pork products and wild boar meat. In this study, we sampled 92 wild boar (Sus scrofa) livers during active surveillance in five municipalities in Central Italy throughout the hunting season 2016-2017. HEV RNA was detected in 52.2% of liver sampled with prevalence ranging from 0.0% to 65.7%. HEV-positive wild boars were detected in all but one area of hunting. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strains clustered within the two subtypes HEV-3c and HEV-3f and displayed a wide range of phylogenetic diversity. Several strains were circulating in the areas investigated; animals possibly belonging to the same family group hunted by the same team were infected with a unique strain (100% nucleotide identity). As wild animals are a proven source of HEV transmission to humans and pigs, the high prevalence observed (mean 52.2%) poses a question on the risk of consuming raw or undercooked wild boar meat, and thus, this subject deserves further investigations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular survey of HEV infection in wild boar population in Italy

Sabato

Ostanello

Grossi

et al. 2018

Transbound Emerg Dis

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“…The research carried out by different authors has shown that HEV can be identified in spleen tissue samples collected from domestic pigs, both in experimental (Lee, Ha, Ahn, & Chae, ; Williams et al., ) as well as in natural infections (Choi & Chae, ). Anheyer‐Behmenburg et al., ; detected RNA HEV in the spleen and also kidney tissues of wild boars and deer from Germany. Our results might reflect the suggestions from the literature indicating that HEV replicates and accumulates in tissues other than the liver (de Deus et al., ; Williams et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular detection of hepatitis E virus in wild boar population in eastern Romania

Porea¹,

Aniţă²,

Demange

et al. 2017

Transbound Emerg Dis

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In industrialized countries, Hepatitis E is a recognized zoonosis, with wild boar and swine representing the main reservoirs for zoonotic genotype HEV-3 in Europe. Data related to HEV infection in wild boar population in Romania are restricted to serological surveys. Therefore, our main goal was to determine the HEV prevalence in wild boar population and to characterize HEV strains circulating in Romania. Using TaqMan real-time RT-PCR assay, we analyzed the presence of RNA HEV in 45 liver samples and five spleen samples collected from 50 wild boars. Samples were collected during the 2013-2015 hunting seasons. Nine samples of 50 were tested positive for HEV RNA, resulting an overall prevalence of 18%. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the isolates clustered in different HEV-3 monophyletic groups, depending on the sampling county. This is the first study signalling, based on molecular analysis, the presence of HEV in wild boar population from Romania. Also, in this study, we report the detection of HEV in splenic tissue from wild boar.

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