title: Molecular detection of hepatitis E virus in sheep from southern Xinjiang, China.
abstract: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a causative agent of infectious hepatitis in animals and humans both in developing and developed countries. Here, we collected 500 sheep sera and 75 raw sheep liver samples from a slaughterhouse in the southern part of the Xinjiang region, China, along with 26 sera of butchers from the same slaughterhouse. All serum samples were tested for anti-HEV antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Both serum and liver samples were evaluated for the presence of HEV RNA by nested polymerase chain reaction targeting partial nucleotide sequences of open reading frame 2 (ORF2). The results indicate that sheep seroprevalence was 35.20 % (176/500) and that four of the 75 (5.3 %) sheep livers showed detectable amounts of HEV RNA. The seroprevalence of the butchers was 57.7 % (15/26). The four amplicons shared 97.8-100 % nucleotide sequence identity and had pairwise sequence identities of 81.6-85.3 %, 84.2-85.3 %, 82.1-85.3 % and 84.7-97.9 % with the corresponding regions of genotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4 of HEV, respectively. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on alignments of an amplified 186-bp ORF2 sequence and corresponding reference strains. The analysis showed that the four sheep strains detected in our study formed a lineage within a genotype 4 cluster that contains hb-3, bjsw1, T1, swCH189 and swCH25, all of which belong to genotype 4, subtype 4d. The results indicated a high level of seroconversion in sheep and suggested that sheep liver may be a source of foodborne HEV infection in humans.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China, wjyn-w@163.com.
authors.forename: Junyuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Fusheng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Si
authors.forename: Chunyu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Meilin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005838:Genotype; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000821:virology; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D044967:Serum / Q000821:virology; D012756:Sheep / Q000821:virology*; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral
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