Hepatitis E Virus Antibodies in Finnish Veterinarians.
We investigated hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections in Finnish veterinarians engaged in different practice specialties and evaluated the effect of different background factors on HEV exposure by examining total HEV antibodies in samples collected from the participants of the 2009 National Veterinary Congress in Helsinki, Finland. Finnish veterinarians commonly have total HEV antibodies with seroprevalence of 10.2%. Of the non-veterinarians, 5.8% were seropositive. Increasing age was associated with HEV seropositivity, and, surprisingly, the highest HEV seroprevalence (17.8%) among veterinarians was detected among small animal practitioners. Although no positive correlation between swine contacts and HEV seropositivity was found, 22.7% of veterinarians who had had needle stick by a needle that had previously been injected into a pig versus 9.0% of those who had not were seropositive, even though the finding was statistically non-significant (P = 0.07). Our results suggest that, although contact with swine is a known risk factor for HEV infection, the sources of HEV infections are probably numerous, including travelling abroad and possibly also other reservoirs of HEV than pigs.
Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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Kantala
Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Virology, Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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PM
Kinnunen
Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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S
Oristo
Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Basic Veterinary Sciences and Population Medicine, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
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Jokelainen
Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Virology, Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Virology and Immunology, HUSLAB, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
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O
Vapalahti
Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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Maunula
D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005387:Finland; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D018634:Veterinarians
D000914:Antibodies, Viral
ELISA; HEV; hepatitis E; seroprevalence; veterinarian