Seroprevalence and risk factors associated with hepatitis E virus infections among people and pigs in Tibet, China

•Hepatitis E is a public health problem and Tibetan pigs act an important reservoir of HEV infection.•Sero-prevalence of Hepatitis E and to explore associated risk factors in local people and pigs in Tibet, China.•This is the first report to estimate the sero-prevalence and potential risk factors associated with HEV infection.•The results demonstrated that swine HEV can cross contaminate the environment and other species including humans.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV), the causative agent of hepatitis E, is an important public health problem throughout the world. There is little information available on the autochthonous HEV infection in highland inhabitants (Tibet, average elevation > 3000 m) of China. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional survey to determine the sero-prevalence of Hepatitis E and association of different risk factors in local people and pigs in Tibet, China. For this purpose, serum samples were collected from 600 local volunteers and 453 Tibetan pigs from July 2014 to August 2015. All the samples were examined for the presence of anti-HEV IgG antibodies by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). While socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics were also obtained through questionnaire. The present survey found a close relationship among the HEV of Tibetan people and pigs. The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG was detected 39.33% (236/600) and 42.38% (192/453) in local people and pigs, respectively. There was a significance association of different age groups, ethnic groups, people having contact with pigs or consuming uncooked meat, and gender of Tibetan pigs. Our findings confirmed the presence of autochthonous HEV among people and pigs in Tibet, China. Therefore, effective measures should be taken to prevent and control HEV infection in Tibet, China.