[Detection and analysis of partial sequences isolated from human and swine in rural area of southern China].
OBJECTIVE
To study the genotype of swines isolated from humans and their relationships with hepatitis E virus (HEV) in the rural areas of southern China.


METHODS
Specimens collected from normal people with HEV-IgM positive, acute hepatitis E patients and from swine in the same area were detected for HEV RNA using RT-nPCR with ORF2 primers. The positive PCR products were cloned and sequenced.


RESULTS
13 out of the 132 samples from swine stool, 4 of 26 HEV-IgM positive sera of normal people and 1 of 4 acute hepatitis E patients' stool sample and sera were tested positive for HEV RNA. Data from sequence analysis showed that the identity at nucleotide level was 89.3%-100.0% among the 10 isolates which shared 78.7% - 84.7%, 83.3% - 85.3%, 76.0% - 80.0% and 84.7% - 95.3% nucleotide sequence identity with HEV genotype I, II, III and IV respectively in the region (nt6317- 6466).


CONCLUSIONS
HEV circulating in humans and swine in the area belonged to genotype IV.
Zhang
Xiao
X
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China.
Zheng
Ying-Jie
YJ
Wang
Fa-Di
FD
Gao
Mei-Yang
MY
Zhu
Jian-Fu
JF
Jiang
Qing-Wu
QW