title: Avian hepatitis E virus identified in Russian chicken flocks exhibits high genetic divergence based on the ORF2 capsid gene.
abstract: A total of 79 liver samples from clinically sick and asymptomatic chickens were tested for avian hepatitis E virus (aHEV). Samples were received from 19 farms, five of which tested positive with primers targeting the ORF2 capsid gene. The phylogenetic analysis of a 242-base-pair fragment demonstrated that the Russian aHEV isolates share between 78.2 and 96.2% over the fragment sequenced, whereas the nucleotide sequence identities between the Russian isolates and the other representatives from GeneBank varied from 76.3 to 96.2%. The homology between the studied hepatitis E viruses and swine hepatitis E virus varied between 46.9 to 48.1%. The most divergent isolate aHEV16050 showed homology of 82.6% as compared with the strains in the dendrogram. The three positive hepatitis E virus samples (aHEV16279, aHEV16050 and aHEV18196) did not cluster with the European genotype 3 as expected due to the close location of Russia to Europe, nor did they with the other two genotypes, separating to a distinct branch. The aHEV16211 grouped together with European and Chinese isolates, and the aHEV18198 with Canadian ones.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Livestock Disease Diagnostics, Federal Centre for Animal Health, Vladimir, 600901, Russia. sprygin@arriah.ru
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Sprygin
authors.forename: Z B
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Nikonova
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Zinyakov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002645:Chickens; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D040961:Genetic Drift; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006524:Hepatitis, Viral, Animal / Q000821:virology*; D052678:Hepevirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008099:Liver / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D012327:RNA Virus Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D012426:Russia; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000662:veterinary; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; C400971:ORF2 protein, Hepatitis E virus; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins