First molecular detection of hepatitis E virus genome in camel and pig faecal samples in Ethiopia

Abstract Background Hepatitis E is an enteric and zoonotic disease caused by hepatitis E virus (HEV) that is mainly transmitted via the faecal-oral route through contaminated food or the environment. The virus is an emerging infectious agent causing acute human infection worldwide. A high seroprevalence of the disease was reported in pregnant women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raising significant public health concern. The presence of HEV specific antibodies were also reported in dromedary camels in the country; however, the infectious virus and/or the viral genome have not been demonstrated to date in animal samples. Methods To address this gap, a total of 95 faecal samples collected from both apparently healthy pigs of uncharacterised types (50 samples) in Burayu and Addis Ababa areas and camels (Camelus dromedarius, 45 samples) in west Hararghe were screened for the presence of HEV genome using universal primers in a fully nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (nRT-PCR). The protocol is capable of detecting HEV in faecal samples from both pigs and camels. Results The nRT-PCR detected HEV genes in six (12%) pig faecal samples and one camel sample (2.2%). Therefore, the results indicate that HEV is circulating in both pigs and camels in Ethiopia and these animals and their products could serve as a potential source of infection for humans. Conclusion The detection of HEV in both animals could raise another concern regarding its public health importance as both animals’ meat and camel milk are consumed in the country. Further studies to determine the prevalence and distribution of the virus in different animals and their products, water bodies, food chain, and vegetables are warranted, along with viral gene sequencing for detailed genetic characterisation of the isolates circulating in the country. This information is critically important to design and institute appropriate control and/or preventive measures.

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Incidence and Molecular Characterization of Hepatitis E Virus from Swine in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Advances in Virology ◽

10.1155/2017/1073253 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Olusesan Adeyemi Adelabu ◽

Benson Chuks Iweriebor ◽

U. U. Nwodo ◽

Larry Chikwelu Obi ◽

Anthony Ifeanyi Okoh

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

South Africa ◽

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Health Concern ◽

Eastern Cape Province ◽

Eastern Cape ◽

Faecal Samples ◽

The World ◽

Low Incidence

Hepatitis E virus-mediated infection is a serious public health concern in economically developing nations of the world. Globally, four major genotypes of HEV have been documented. Hepatitis E has been suggested to be zoonotic owing to the increase of evidence through various studies. Thus far, this paper reports on prevalence of hepatitis E virus among swine herd in selected communal and commercial farms in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A total of 160 faecal samples were collected from swine herds in Amathole and Chris Hani District Municipalities of Eastern Cape Province for the presence of HEV. Of the 160 faecal samples screened, only seven were positive (4.4%) for HEV. The nucleotide sequences analyses revealed the isolates as sharing 82% to 99% identities with other strains (KX896664, KX896665, KX896666, KX896667, KX896668, KX896669, and KX896670) from different regions of the world. We conclude that HEV is present among swine in the Eastern Cape Province, albeit in low incidence, and this does have public health implications. There is a need for maintenance of high hygienic standards in order to prevent human infections through swine faecal materials and appropriate cooking of pork is highly advised.

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Hepatitis E Virus Replication

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v11080719 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 719 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Robert LeDesma ◽

Ila Nimgaonkar ◽

Alexander Ploss

Keyword(s):

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Rna Virus ◽

Hypervariable Region ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Open Reading Frames ◽

Health Concern ◽

Viral Gene ◽

Genome Replication ◽

Replication Strategy ◽

Viral Gene Product

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a small quasi-enveloped, (+)-sense, single-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Hepeviridae family. There are at least 20 million HEV infections annually and 60,000 HEV-related deaths worldwide. HEV can cause up to 30% mortality in pregnant women and progress to liver cirrhosis in immunocompromised individuals and is, therefore, a greatly underestimated public health concern. Although a prophylactic vaccine for HEV has been developed, it is only licensed in China, and there is currently no effective, non-teratogenic treatment. HEV encodes three open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 is the largest viral gene product, encoding the replicative machinery of the virus including a methyltransferase, RNA helicase, and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. ORF1 additionally contains a number of poorly understood domains including a hypervariable region, a putative protease, and the so-called ‘X’ and ‘Y’ domains. ORF2 is the viral capsid essential for formation of infectious particles and ORF3 is a small protein essential for viral release. In this review, we focus on the domains encoded by ORF1, which collectively mediate the virus’ asymmetric genome replication strategy. We summarize what is known, unknown, and hotly debated regarding the coding and non-coding regions of HEV ORF1, and present a model of how HEV replicates its genome.

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Detection and molecular characterisation of swine Hepatitis E virus in Brescia province, Italy

Italian Journal of Food Safety ◽

10.4081/ijfs.2015.4587 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Enrico Pavoni ◽

Ilaria Barbieri ◽

Barbara Bertasi ◽

Guerino Lombardi ◽

Paolo Cordioli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Early Period ◽

Epidemiological Data ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Health Concern ◽

Universal Primers ◽

Genotype 3 ◽

Lombardy Region ◽

Distinct Area ◽

Stool Samples

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an important public health concern in many developing countries and it occurs in sporadic forms in industrialized areas. With the discovery of swine HEV in pigs, which is genetically closely related to human HEV, hepatitis E is considered to be a zoonotic disease. To investigate the circulation of HEV within a distinct area of Lombardy region (Northern Italy), 17 pig farms were subjected to monitoring study by collection of fresh stool samples each represented by ground-pooled specimens. In particular, three distinct types of breeding farms were focused, represented by farrow to weaning, farrow to finish and fattening farms, respectively. Epidemiological data confirm that in Europe the seroprevalence in pigs, more than 9 month of age, ranges from 51.4 to 75%, while in 3-9 months fatteners is about 38%. In France and Italy, the positivity among farms is respectively 30 and 97.4% and the seroprevalence in Italy is 50.2%. Since HEV viremia was typically observed in the early period of life in swine, faeces were collected in boxes containing weaning pigs. For the study, 183 stool samples were collected and amplifications were performed with universal primers specific for the ORF2 region of genome. Twentyeight samples resulted positive to HEV RNA and genotyping demonstrated that they were closely related to HEV strains belonging to genotype 3 and circulating in Europe. Comparison with reference strains from GenBank excluded their similarity to genotype 1, 2 or 4 confirming that genotype 3 strains are circulating in Europe. Since it was demonstrated that swine act as a reservoir for HEV, and since many strains into HEV genotype 3 share a strong molecular similarity to human HEV, it was important to detect the presence of HEV in a restricted area with a very high density of pigs.

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Detection and characterisation of hepatitis E virus in naturally infected swine in Croatia

Acta Veterinaria Hungarica ◽

10.1556/avet.2013.031 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 61 (4) ◽

pp. 517-528 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Zoran Lipej ◽

Dinko Novosel ◽

Lea Vojta ◽

Besi Roić ◽

Miljenko Šimpraga ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Age Groups ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Health Concern ◽

Rt Pcr ◽

Animal Reservoir ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Swine Herds ◽

Bile Samples

Hepatitis E is a viral zoonotic disease infecting swine worldwide. Since pigs represent a likely animal reservoir for the hepatitis E virus, the epidemiology of naturally occurring hepatitis E was investigated in Croatian swine herds. Nearly all tested animals were seropositive for antibodies against the hepatitis E virus (55/60, 91.7%). Active infection was detected in all age groups by RT-PCR of viral RNA in serum (8/60, 13.3%) and bile samples (3/37, 8.1%), which was further confirmed by histopathological findings of characteristic lesions in the livers of the infected animals. Three new strains of hepatitis E virus were isolated from Croatian pig herds. Phylogenetic analysis using median-joining networks clustered those Croatian strains with isolates from various parts of the world, indicating their likely origin in international trade. Similarity to human isolates implies a zoonotic potential of Croatian strains, which raises a public health concern, especially in the light of the high prevalence of hepatitis E in the herds studied.

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Seroprevalence of the hepatitis E virus antibodies among blood donors in the Qassim region, Saudi Arabia

Future Virology ◽

10.2217/fvl-2021-0013 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bader Y Alhatlani ◽

Waleed A Aljabr ◽

Mohammed S Almarzouqi ◽

Sami M Alhatlani ◽

Rayan N Alzunaydi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Saudi Arabia ◽

Blood Transfusion ◽

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Blood Donors ◽

Indirect Elisa ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Public Health Issue ◽

Serum Samples ◽

Major Public Health Issue

Aim: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) transmission through blood transfusion is a major public health issue worldwide. We aimed to determine the seroprevalence of HEV in blood donors in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. Materials & methods: Serum samples (n = 1078) were collected from volunteer blood donors and tested for the presence of anti-HEV IgG and IgM by indirect ELISA. Results: The seroprevalence of anti-HEV IgG among the blood donors was 5.7% overall. Anti-HEV IgG and IgM seropositivity were significantly higher in non-Saudi donors than in Saudi donors (22.1 vs 3 and 7.8 vs 0.2% for anti-HEV IgG and IgM, respectively). Conclusion: The seroprevalence of HEV among blood donors in the Qassim region was lower than previous estimates for other regions of the country and neighboring countries.

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Public Health Concern of Hepatitis-E Infection: Developing Nations Perspective

Biology and Medicine ◽

10.4172/0974-8369.1000e114 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 07 (01) ◽

Author(s):

Saurabh RamBihariLal

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Developing Nations ◽

Health Concern ◽

Public Health Concern

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Zinc Salts Block Hepatitis E Virus Replication by Inhibiting the Activity of Viral RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase

Journal of Virology ◽

10.1128/jvi.00754-17 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 91 (21) ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Nidhi Kaushik ◽

Chandru Subramani ◽

Saumya Anang ◽

Rajagopalan Muthumohan ◽

Shalimar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rna Polymerase ◽

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Zinc Supplementation ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Viral Rna ◽

Health Concern ◽

Healthy Individuals ◽

Genomic Rna ◽

Rna Dependent Rna Polymerase ◽

Zinc Salts

ABSTRACT Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes an acute, self-limiting hepatitis in healthy individuals and leads to chronic disease in immunocompromised individuals. HEV infection in pregnant women results in a more severe outcome, with the mortality rate going up to 30%. Though the virus usually causes sporadic infection, epidemics have been reported in developing and resource-starved countries. No specific antiviral exists against HEV. A combination of interferon and ribavirin therapy has been used to control the disease with some success. Zinc is an essential micronutrient that plays crucial roles in multiple cellular processes. Zinc salts are known to be effective in reducing infections caused by few viruses. Here, we investigated the effect of zinc salts on HEV replication. In a human hepatoma cell (Huh7) culture model, zinc salts inhibited the replication of genotype 1 (g-1) and g-3 HEV replicons and g-1 HEV infectious genomic RNA in a dose-dependent manner. Analysis of a replication-defective mutant of g-1 HEV genomic RNA under similar conditions ruled out the possibility of zinc salts acting on replication-independent processes. An ORF4-Huh7 cell line-based infection model of g-1 HEV further confirmed the above observations. Zinc salts did not show any effect on the entry of g-1 HEV into the host cell. Furthermore, our data reveal that zinc salts directly inhibit the activity of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), leading to inhibition of viral replication. Taken together, these studies unravel the ability of zinc salts in inhibiting HEV replication, suggesting their possible therapeutic value in controlling HEV infection. IMPORTANCE Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a public health concern in resource-starved countries due to frequent outbreaks. It is also emerging as a health concern in developed countries owing to its ability to cause acute and chronic infection in organ transplant and immunocompromised individuals. Although antivirals such as ribavirin have been used to treat HEV cases, there are known side effects and limitations of such therapy. Our discovery of the ability of zinc salts to block HEV replication by virtue of their ability to inhibit the activity of viral RdRp is important because these findings pave the way to test the efficacy of zinc supplementation therapy in HEV-infected patients. Since zinc supplementation therapy is known to be safe in healthy individuals and since high-dose zinc is used in the treatment of Wilson's disease, it may be possible to control HEV-associated health problems following a similar treatment regimen.

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Potential effects of hepatitis E virus infection in swine on public health in China

Infection Genetics and Evolution ◽

10.1016/j.meegid.2018.12.017 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 68 ◽

pp. 113-118

Author(s):

Jian-hua Zhou ◽

Youjun Shang ◽

Xiao-an Cao ◽

Yi-ning Wang ◽

Yongsheng Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Virus Infection ◽

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Hepatitis E

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Rat Hepatitis E Virus Linked to Severe Acute Hepatitis in an Immunocompetent Patient

The Journal of Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1093/infdis/jiz025 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 220 (6) ◽

pp. 951-955 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Anton Andonov ◽

Mark Robbins ◽

Jamie Borlang ◽

Jingxin Cao ◽

Todd Hatchette ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Acute Hepatitis ◽

Hepatitis E Virus ◽

Genomic Sequence ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

The United States ◽

Immunocompetent Patient ◽

Health Concern ◽

Animal Reservoir ◽

Hepatitis Infection ◽

Severe Acute Hepatitis

Abstract Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major public health concern in developing countries where the primary transmission is via contaminated water. Zoonotic HEV cases have been increasingly described in Europe, Japan, and the United States, with pigs representing the main animal reservoir of infection. We report an unusual acute hepatitis infection in a previously healthy man caused by a rat HEV with a considerably divergent genomic sequence compared with other rat HEV strains. It is possible that rat HEV is an underrecognized cause of hepatitis infection, and further studies are necessary to elucidate its potential risk and mode of transmission.

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