Frequent detection and characterization of hepatitis E virus variants in wild rats (Rattus rattus) in Indonesia

• Published in: Archives of virology Vol. 158; no. 1; pp. 87 - 96
• Main Authors: Mulyanto, Depamede, Sulaiman Ngongu, Sriasih, Made, Takahashi, Masaharu, Nagashima, Shigeo, Jirintai, Suljid, Nishizawa, Tsutomu, Okamoto, Hiroaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.01.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Animals, Wild - immunology; Animals, Wild - virology; Antibodies; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Developing countries; Disease Reservoirs - virology; Female; Genomes; Genotype & phenotype; Hepatitis; Hepatitis Antibodies - immunology; Hepatitis E - virology; Hepatitis E virus; Hepatitis E virus - classification; Hepatitis E virus - genetics; Hepatitis E virus - immunology; Hepatitis E virus - isolation & purification; Hogs; Houses; Indonesia; Infectious Diseases; LDCs; Male; Medical Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Original Article; Phylogeny; Proteins; Rats - immunology; Rats - virology; Rattus rattus; Sanitation; Virology; Zoonoses; Indonesia; Mataram; United States > US; Japan; Germany; Wild Boar; Recombinant ORF2 Protein; Vietnamese Strain
• ISSN: 0304-8608; 1432-8798
• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-012-1462-0

One hundred sixteen rats ( Rattus rattus ) captured in Indonesia from 2011 to 2012 were investigated for the prevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV)-specific antibodies and HEV RNA. Using an ELISA based on HEV genotype 4 with an ad hoc cutoff value of 0.500, 18.1 % of the rats tested positive for anti-HEV IgG. By nested RT-PCR, 14.7 % of the rats had rat HEV RNA, and none were positive for HEV genotype 1-4. A high HEV prevalence among rats was associated with lower sanitary conditions in areas with a high population density. Sixteen of the 17 HEV isolates obtained from infected rats showed >93.0 % nucleotide sequence identity within the 840-nucleotide ORF1-ORF2 sequence and were most closely related to a Vietnamese strain (85.9-87.9 % identity), while the remaining isolate differed from known rat HEV strains by 18.8-23.3 % and may belong to a novel lineage of rat HEV. These results suggest a wide distribution of rat HEV with divergent genomes.