Detection and Molecular Analysis of Hepatitis E Virus for Wild Boars, Wild Deer, Pigs and Sewage in Miyagi

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Food Microbiology Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 159 - 164
• Main Authors: Sasaki, Mie, Koizumi, Hikari, Ikushima, Shiori, Sugawara, Naoko, Ueki, Yo, Hatakeyama, Takashi, Uema, Masashi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Japanese Society of Food Microbiology 30.12.2019
• Subjects: animals; Hepatitis E virus; sewage
• ISSN: 1340-8267; 1882-5982
• DOI: 10.5803/jsfm.36.159

We investigated the prevalence of Hepatitis E virus (HEV) using RT-PCR among wild boars, wild deer and pigs in Miyagi prefecture from 2015 to 2017. We conducted to detect of HEV gene from sewage from 2016 to 2018. Samples of livers were collected from 76 wild deer, 84 wild boars and 156 pigs. Ninety-one of sewage samples were collected from wastewater treatment plants. HEV gene were detected in liver samples of wild boars, wild deer and pigs with positivity of 9.5% (8/84), 0% (0/76) and 5.8% (9/156), respectively. The detection rate of HEV gene from sewage was 7.7%. All HEV strains detected in this study were belonging to genotype 3. These results from revealed that some wild boars and pigs are carrying HEV, which requires to properly process the meat sufficiently with heat in the consumption. HEV gene was detected from sewage, which suggested that symptomatic or non-symptomatic HEV infection can be grasped by monitoring HEV gene in sewage.