title: Cross-species infection of pigs with a novel rabbit, but not rat, strain of hepatitis E virus isolated in the United States.
abstract: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an important human pathogen. In addition to humans, HEV has also been identified in pig, chicken, mongoose, deer, rat, rabbit and fish. There are four recognized and two putative genotypes of mammalian HEV. Genotypes 1 and 2 are restricted to humans, while genotypes 3 and 4 are zoonotic. The recently identified rabbit HEV is a distant member of genotype 3. Here, we first expressed and purified the recombinant capsid protein of rabbit HEV and showed that the capsid protein of rabbit HEV cross-reacted with antibodies raised against avian, rat, swine and human HEV. Conversely, we showed that antibodies against rabbit HEV cross-reacted with capsid proteins derived from chicken, rat, swine and human HEV. Since pigs are the natural host of genotype 3 HEV, we then determined if rabbit HEV infects pigs. Twenty pigs were divided into five groups of four each and intravenously inoculated with PBS, US rabbit HEV, Chinese rabbit HEV, US rat HEV and swine HEV, respectively. Results showed that only half of the pigs inoculated with rabbit HEV had low levels of viraemia and faecal virus shedding, indicative of active but not robust HEV infection. Infection of pigs by rabbit HEV was further verified by transmission of the virus recovered from pig faeces to naïve rabbits. Pigs inoculated with rat HEV showed no evidence of infection. Preliminary results suggest that rabbit HEV is antigenically related to other HEV strains and infects pigs and that rat HEV failed to infect pigs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Caitlin M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Cossaboom
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Córdoba
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Brenton J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Sanford
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Piñeyro
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Scott P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Kenney
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Dryman
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Youchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Xiang-Jin
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Meng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013045:Species Specificity; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D012367:RNA, Viral