Phylogenetic analysis of hepatitis E virus in domestic swine and wild boar in Germany

- We detect HEV in domestic swine and free living wild boar in Germany.
- We provide 1 complete genomic (swine) and 3 complete capsid (wild boar) HEV sequences.
- The heterogeneity of HEV detected in wild boar population is remarkable.
- Phylogenetic tree based on small fragment sequences was not reliable.
- There is potential zoonotic HEV transmission risk between swine, wild boar and humans.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging non-enveloped positive strand RNA virus with worldwide distribution that can cause acute liver disease in humans. The virus has also been detected in both domestic and wild animals. In this study we investigated the presence of HEV in free-living wild boar as well as in domestic swine. A total of 105 domestic swine fecal samples and 124 wild boar sera were tested for the presence of HEV RNA by RT-PCR. A 241 nucleotide (nt) fragment from the capsid gene of HEV from one domestic swine and from 18 wild boars were amplified and sequenced. In addition, the complete capsid of three HEV sequences found in wild boar and the complete genomic sequence of the domestic swine HEV were obtained. Phylogenetic analyses based on both the 241 nt fragments as well as four complete capsid gene sequences demonstrated that all sequences belong to genotype HEV-3.