Abstract
In the last few years it has been realized that the hepatitis E virus (HEV) is endemic in most industrialized countries and that it is a zoonotic disease. Potential reservoirs for HEV have been identified to be wild boars and deers, but HEV has also been found in domestic pigs and other animals. Due to the probable spread of the virus via contaminated food or contact to infected animals, HEV antibodies are present in more than 16% of the German adult population and rates are increasing with age. We collected blood from 104 wild boars in southern Germany and the border region of Alsace. We found an anti-HEV seroprevalence of 11.5% in our cohort, using ELISA. Furthermore, we observed active infection in 3.85% of the animals by positive HEV PCR in the sera of the boars. In our cohort, no regional differences of seroprevalence or active infection were seen. Sequencing revealed rather close homology of some detected HEV sequences to genotypes isolated from patients in Germany. Hence wild boars are a potential source of HEV infection in Middle Europe and the rate of infectious animals is quite high.
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Acknowledgements
This study was only possible since many hunters were willing to sample blood from culled wild boar. We thank all hunters who contributed. The majority of samples were obtained from the following hunters: Alfred Baumhauer, Fürst zu Oettingen-Spielberg, Ulrich Gann, F. Vaas, and Josef Lemmermeier to whom we are particularly grateful. We also thank Barbara Hottenträger and Monika Erl for expert technical assistance.
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Concept of the study: Kilian Weigand, Kurt Weigand. Writing the manuscript: Kilian Weigand, Kurt Weigand. Sequencing, genotyping, and ELISA: Mathias Schemmerer and Juergen Wenzel. Data acquirement, Statistical, and data analysis: Kilian Weigand and Juergen Wenzel. Scientific support: Martina Mueller. Critical review of the manuscript: all authors.
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Weigand, K., Weigand, K., Schemmerer, M. et al. Hepatitis E Seroprevalence and Genotyping in a Cohort of Wild Boars in Southern Germany and Eastern Alsace. Food Environ Virol 10, 167–175 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-017-9329-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-017-9329-x