engleski

The presence of Hepatitis E virus (HEV) in animals in Croatia

Hepatitis E is an enterically transmitted, mostly self limiting and waterborne viral infection of humans. The significance of the disease as a public health problem is arising since extra-hepatic manifestations and cases of chronic infections in immunocompromised patients have been reported. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) classifies into the family Hepeviridae consisting two genera, Orthohepevirus (A, B, C and D) and Piscihepevirus. Members of species Orthohepevirus A genotypes HEV-1 and HEV-2 are human specific ; whereas HEV-3 and HEV-4 show a zoonotic potential. Even though novel genotypes of HEV and their hosts are consecutively reported, only swine are still considered as the true reservoirs of the virus. From 2009 the presence of HEV RNA has been investigated in domestic and wild animals in Croatia. However, positive findings were recorded only in swine and wild boars showing a viral prevalence of 15.2% and 11.5%, and a high overall seroprevalence of 32.9% and 31.1%, respectively. Some serologically positive wild boars were found to be HEV RNA positive indicating chronic infection and possible prolonged virus spread into the environment. According to the sequence analysis, all strains derived from swine and wild boars have shown to be genetically highly related members of Orthohepevirus A genotype HEV-3. The genotyping results confirm grouping of sequences into two general subgroups (3abchij and 3efg) that consist of three smaller subgroups. Two of the subgroups were detected in both animal species throughout the entire investigated period (2009-2017) showing to be endemic, whereas members of the third subgroup appear sporadically. The strains are genetically related to strains found in humans from Croatia and Europe and/or swine from other European Countries, indicating that members of the Suide family in Croatia can potentially be considered as risk factors and that trade of live animals or wild boar movement increases the risk of HEV spread.

Hepatitis E virus, Swine, Wild boar, Mouse, Croatia

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