title: Inactivation of infectious hepatitis E virus present in commercial pig livers sold in local grocery stores in the United States.
abstract: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic pathogen and pigs are a known reservoir. Recently we showed that approximately 11% of commercial pig livers sold in local U.S. grocery stores for food consumptions are contaminated by infectious HEV. In this study, a swine bioassay was used to determine if the infectious HEV in contaminated commercial pig livers could be inactivated by traditional cooking methods. Group 1 pigs (n=5) were each inoculated intravenously (i.v.) with a HEV-negative liver homogenate as negative controls, group 2 pigs (n=5) were each inoculated i.v. with a pool of two HEV-positive pig liver homogenates as positive controls, groups 3, 4 and 5 pigs (n=5, each group) were each inoculated i.v. with a pool of homogenates of two HEV-positive livers incubated at 56 degrees C for 1 h, stir-fried at 191 degrees C (internal temperature of 71 degrees C) for 5 min or boiled in water for 5 min, respectively. As expected, the group 2 positive control pigs all became infected whereas the group 1 negative control pigs remained negative. Four of the five pigs inoculated with HEV-positive liver homogenates incubated at 56 degrees C for 1 h also became infected. However, pigs in groups 4 and 5 did not become infected. The results indicated that HEV in contaminated commercial pig livers can be effectively inactivated if cooked properly, although incubation at 56 degrees C for 1 h cannot inactivate the virus. Thus, to reduce the risk of food-borne HEV transmission, pig livers must be thoroughly cooked.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0342, United States.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Feagins
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Opriessnig
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Guenette
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Halbur
authors.forename: X J
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Meng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000635:transmission* / Q000662:veterinary; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000821:virology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D011897:Random Allocation; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013552:Swine; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral