The prevalence and genomic characteristics of hepatitis E virus in murine rodents and house shrews from several regions in China

Abstract

BackgroundUrban rodents and house shrews are closely correlated in terms of location with humans and can transmit many pathogens to them. Hepatitis E has been confirmed to be a zoonotic disease. However, the zoonotic potential of rat HEV is still unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and genomic characteristics of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in rodents and house shrews.ResultsWe collected a total of 788 animals from four provinces in China. From the 614 collected murine rodents, 20.19% of the liver tissue samples and 45.76% of the fecal samples were positive for HEV. From the 174 house shrews (Suncus murinus), 5.17% fecal samples and 0.57% liver tissue samples were positive for HEV. All of the HEV sequences obtained in this study belonged to Orthohepevirus C1. However, we observed a lower percentage of identity in the ORF3 region upon comparing the amino acid sequences between Rattus norvegicus and Rattus losea. HEV derived from house shrews shared a high percentage of identity with rat HEV. Notably, the first near full-length of the HEV genome from Rattus losea is described in our study, and we also report the first near full-length rat HEV genomes in Rattus norvegicus from China.ConclusionHEV is prevalent among the three common species of murine rodents (Rattus. norvegicus, Rattus. tanezumi, and Rattus. losea) in China. HEV sequences detected from house shrews were similar to rat HEV sequences. The high identity of HEV from murine rodents and house shrews suggested that HEV can spread among different animal species.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-018-1746-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The First Documented Detection in Taiwan of The Hepatitis E Virus in Rats

“…The detection rates of HEV-C RNA in R. norvegicus were 4.3% and 4.4% in Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively. Moreover, this nding is consistent with the detection rates of HEV RNA (1.7-22.8%) in previous studies in Europe and Asia in the 2010s [16,17,18]. This nding implies that Taiwan is likely to have a risk of human HEV-C infection, especially given that ongoing sporadic transmission throughout 2017-2020 has already been observed in Hong Kong.…”

Orthohepevirus C: An Expanding Species of Emerging Hepatitis E Virus Variants

“…Interspecies transmission of Orthohepevirus C variants has been characterized in several studies as well. House shrews (Suncus murinus) have been reported as a reservoir of rat HEV worldwide; however, a novel divergent HEV strain has been detected in a Olivier's shrew (Crocidura olivieri) from Kenya and formed a separate monophyletic branch from HEV-C1, indicating the relationship between the viral species Orthohepevirus C and the animal order Soricomorpha should be more complex than previously considered [35,43,44,48]. Although ferret HEV (HEV-C2) can cause both acute and persistent infection in ferrets, researchers failed to infect monkeys and rats with ferret HEV [77].…”

“…Orthohepevirus C sequences were initially detected in Germany in the widespread rat species Rattus norvegicus (Brown rat/Norway rat) [19,20]. To date, the vast majority of Orthohepevirus C genomes have been identified in Norway rats, from countries including the USA, China, Germany, France, Denmark, Lithuania, England, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Vietnam, with all viral strains belonging to HEV-C1 [19,20,24,25,29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. Orthohepevirus C genomes have been detected in numerous other members of the family Muridae: HEV-C1 from Rattus rattus (Black Rat) has been detected in Indonesia, China, Kenya, and 12 other European countries comprising Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, and the Czech Republic [29,30,32,41,47,48]; Rattus tanezumi (Oriental house rat) in Vietnam and China have also been reported to harbor the virus [26,36,44,49]; in China, HEV-C1 RNA has been detected in Rattus losea (Losea rat), Rattus flavipectus (Yellow-breasted rat), and Bandicota indica (Greater bandicoot rat) [25,43,44]; Apodemus chevrieri (Chevrier's field mouse) and Apodemus agrarius (Striped field mouse) were positive for Orthohepevirus C detection; however, these variants are phylogenetically divergent from known HEV-C1 or HEV-C2, and thus, cannot yet be classified [36,50].…”

“…Additionally, Orthohepevirus C sequences have been detected in other animal species of mammals. Within the family Soricidae of the order of Soricomorpha, the species Suncus murinus (House shrew/Asian musk shrew) harbor HEV-C1 in China and Asian musk shrew have been implied as a reservoir for HEV-C1 from wild rats, while the virus in the species Crocidura olivieri (Olivier's shrew) from Kenya cannot be assigned due to increased genetic divergence [35,44,48,50].…”

Characterization of a Novel Rat Hepatitis E Virus Isolated from an Asian Musk Shrew (Suncus murinus)

“…KC473527–KC473531) [ 26 ]. Although partial rat HEV genome sequences were recently detected in shrews in China [ 27 , 28 ], there is no information for the classification of the viruses using the entire genome sequences.…”