title: Frequent detection and characterization of hepatitis E virus variants in wild rats (Rattus rattus) in Indonesia.
abstract: One hundred sixteen rats (Rattus rattus) captured in Indonesia from 2011 to 2012 were investigated for the prevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV)-specific antibodies and HEV RNA. Using an ELISA based on HEV genotype 4 with an ad hoc cutoff value of 0.500, 18.1 % of the rats tested positive for anti-HEV IgG. By nested RT-PCR, 14.7 % of the rats had rat HEV RNA, and none were positive for HEV genotype 1-4. A high HEV prevalence among rats was associated with lower sanitary conditions in areas with a high population density. Sixteen of the 17 HEV isolates obtained from infected rats showed >93.0 % nucleotide sequence identity within the 840-nucleotide ORF1-ORF2 sequence and were most closely related to a Vietnamese strain (85.9-87.9 % identity), while the remaining isolate differed from known rat HEV strains by 18.8-23.3 % and may belong to a novel lineage of rat HEV. These results suggest a wide distribution of rat HEV with divergent genomes.
authors.affiliation: Immunobiology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, University of Mataram, Mataram, Indonesia.
authors.lastname: Mulyanto
authors.forename: Sulaiman Ngongu
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Depamede
authors.forename: Made
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sriasih
authors.forename: Masaharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Shigeo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: Suljid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jirintai
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishizawa
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okamoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000276:immunology; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000821:virology*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007214:Indonesia; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D051381:Rats / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies