Hepatitis E virus strains in rabbits and evidence of a closely related strain in humans, France

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) strains from rabbits indicate that these mammals may be a reservoir for HEVs that cause infection in humans. To determine HEV prevalence in rabbits and the strains' genetic characteristics, we tested bile, liver, and additional samples from farmed and wild rabbits in Fra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emerging infectious diseases 2012-08, Vol.18 (8), p.1274-1281
Main Authors: Izopet, Jacques, Dubois, Martine, Bertagnoli, Stéphane, Lhomme, Sébastien, Marchandeau, Stéphane, Boucher, Samuel, Kamar, Nassim, Abravanel, Florence, Guérin, Jean-Luc
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal biology
Animal Husbandry
Animals
Animals, Wild - virology
Bile - virology
Europe
France - epidemiology
Genetic aspects
Genotype
Health aspects
Hepatitis E
Hepatitis E - epidemiology
Hepatitis E - transmission
Hepatitis E - veterinary
Hepatitis E - virology
Hepatitis E virus
Hepatitis E virus - classification
Hepatitis E virus - genetics
Hepatitis E virus - isolation & purification
Humans
Infection
Life Sciences
Liver - virology
Microbiology and Parasitology
Molecular Sequence Data
Open Reading Frames
Phylogeny
rabbit
Rabbits
Rabbits - virology
RNA
RNA, Viral - genetics
Santé publique et épidémiologie
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Veterinary medicine and animal Health
Virology
viruses
zoonoses
Zoonoses - transmission
Zoonoses - virology
zoonosis, virus
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Summary:Hepatitis E virus (HEV) strains from rabbits indicate that these mammals may be a reservoir for HEVs that cause infection in humans. To determine HEV prevalence in rabbits and the strains' genetic characteristics, we tested bile, liver, and additional samples from farmed and wild rabbits in France. We detected HEV RNA in 7% (14/200) of bile samples from farmed rabbits (in 2009) and in 23% (47/205) of liver samples from wild rabbits (in 2007-2010). Full-length genomic sequences indicated that all rabbit strains belonged to the same clade (nucleotide sequences 72.2%-78.2% identical to HEV genotypes 1-4). Comparison with HEV sequences of human strains and reference sequences identified a human strain closely related to rabbit strain HEV. We found a 93-nt insertion in the X domain of open reading frame 1 of the human strain and all rabbit HEV strains. These findings indicate that the host range of HEV in Europe is expanding and that zoonotic transmission of HEV from rabbits is possible.
ISSN:1080-6040
1080-6059
DOI:10.3201/eid1808.120057