- Detection and molecular characterization of hepatitis E virus in clinical, environmental and putative animal sources.
Detection and molecular characterization of hepatitis E virus in clinical, environmental and putative animal sources.
Archives of virology (2012-08-01)
Setsuko Ishida, Shima Yoshizumi, Tetsuya Ikeda, Masahiro Miyoshi, Akiko Goto, Keiji Matsubayashi, Hisami Ikeda
PMID22847755
ABSTRACT
Putative animal reservoirs and environmental samples were studied to investigate potential routes of transmission for indigenous hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in Hokkaido, Japan. A total of 468 liver samples and 954 environmental samples were collected from 2003 to 2011 for this study. Four swine livers (1 %) were positive for HEV RNA; two strains belonged to genotype 3 and the other two strains were genotype 4. Genotype 3 HEV was detected in a sewage sample and a seawater sample. HEV strains derived from swine liver, seawater and raw sewage samples shared 93-100 % sequence similarity with human HEV strains.