| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3362347 | International Journal of Infectious Diseases | 2014 | 6 Pages |
•In Romania, seropositivity (IgG anti-HEV) in humans is increasing in linear proportion with age, infection especially affecting middle-aged adults.•Hepatitis E virus RNA was isolated from fecal samples collected from healthy 2 to 4 months old pigs.•Phylogenetic analysis revealed close similarities between the two Romanian swine HEV sequences and human strains isolated in Europe.•The results have important implications in assessment of public health risks related to the zoonotic transmission of swine HEV to human.
SummaryObjectiveSwine hepatitis E virus (HEV) is considered to be a new zoonotic agent due to its close genomic resemblance to the human HEV. The aim of this study was to determine human HEV seroprevalence in eastern Romania and to characterize circulating swine HEV sequences.MethodsSerological investigations of human serum samples were done using a commercial ELISA kit (MP Biomedicals). Swine faecal samples were tested to detect the HEV ORF2 sequence by nested reverse transcription PCR.ResultsOne hundred and forty-eight human serum samples were tested for anti-HEV IgG of which 22 were found to be positive. Fresh swine faeces (pools) were collected from five farms in eastern Romania. Six out of 19 pooled samples were positive for HEV RNA. Phylogenetic analysis based on alignment of the ORF2 sequence indicated that the Romanian swine HEV isolates belonged to genotype 3.ConclusionsThis is the first study showing HEV to be present in Romanian pig herds and that the human population is exposed.
