title: Prevalence of hepatitis E virus antibodies in Canadian swine herds and identification of a novel variant of swine hepatitis E virus.
abstract: Swine hepatitis E virus is a newly identified potentially zoonotic virus from pigs of particular concern for possible direct transmission to a human xenotransplant recipient by organ transplantation. In the present study, prevalence of serum antibodies to hepatitis E virus was examined in Canadian swine herds. A total of 998 serum samples collected from 6-month-old healthy slaughter hogs were examined by enzyme immunoassay and Western blot analysis for antibodies to the recombinant open reading frame 3 (ORF3) protein of hepatitis E virus expressed in Escherichia coli. These samples represented more than 80 different swine production units from five major swine-producing provinces across Canada. From this study, 594 samples (59.4%) were found to be positive for hepatitis E virus antibody. The seroprevalence was higher in Quebec (88.8%) and Ontario (80.1%) than in Alberta and Saskatchewan (38.3%). By PCR using a pair of oligonucleotide primers deduced from the ORF2 sequence of human hepatitis E virus, a specific hepatitis E virus sequence was recovered from feces of pigs. The nucleotide sequence identity between the U.S. swine hepatitis E virus and the Canadian isolate (SK3) was only 85.8%, suggesting that genotypic variations may exist in swine hepatitis E virus in North America. Among 165 serum samples collected from humans in Saskatchewan, 2.4% were found to be positive for antibodies to the hepatitis E virus ORF3 protein. Our data indicate that hepatitis E virus is highly prevalent in commercial swine populations in Canada and support the suggestion that the swine hepatitis E virus may be an important zoonotic agent for humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. dyoo@uoguelph.ca
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Willson
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hayes
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deckert
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Dewey
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Friendship
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gottschalk
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yason
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giulivi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D001483:Base Sequence; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D003429:Cross Reactions; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015047:Zoonoses
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; C400973:ORF3 protein, Hepatitis E virus; D014764:Viral Proteins