Ferret hepatitis E virus infection induces acute hepatitis and persistent infection in ferrets

• Published in: Veterinary microbiology Vol. 183; pp. 30 - 36
• Main Authors: Li, Tian-Cheng, Yang, Tingting, Yoshizaki, Sayaka, Ami, Yasushi, Suzaki, Yuriko, Ishii, Koji, Kishida, Noriko, Shirakura, Masayuki, Asanuma, Hideki, Takeda, Naokazu, Wakita, Takaji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.02.2016
• Subjects: Acute Disease; alanine transaminase; Alanine Transaminase - blood; ALT; Animal model; animal models; Animals; Antibodies, Viral - blood; AST; chronic diseases; Disease Models, Animal; Feces - virology; Ferret HEV; ferrets; Ferrets - virology; hepatitis; Hepatitis E - pathology; Hepatitis E - veterinary; Hepatitis E virus; Hepatitis E virus - physiology; imports; Japan; liver; Liver - pathology; Liver - virology; Mustela putorius furo; Orthohepevirus A; pathogenicity; Persistent infection; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - veterinary; RNA, Viral - genetics; United States; United States; Japan; Animal model; ALT; AST; Ferret HEV; Persistent infection
• ISSN: 0378-1135; 1873-2542
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2015.11.014

•Ferret HEV infection is responsible for liver damage.•Ferret HEV infection in ferrets exhibits three patterns: sub-clinical infection, acute hepatitis, and persistent infection.•Ferrets are candidate animal model for immunological and pathological studies of hepatitis E. Ferret hepatitis E virus (HEV), a novel hepatitis E virus, has been identified in ferrets. However, the pathogenicity of ferret HEV remains unclear. In the present study, we compared the HEV RNA-positivity rates and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels of 63 ferrets between before and after import from the US to Japan. We found that the ferret HEV-RNA positivity rates were increased from 12.7% (8/63) to 60.3% (38/63), and ALT elevation was observed in 65.8% (25/38) of the ferret HEV RNA-positive ferrets, indicating that ferret HEV infection is responsible for liver damage. From long term-monitoring of ferret HEV infection we determined that this infection in ferrets exhibits three patterns: sub-clinical infection, acute hepatitis, and persistent infection. The ALT elevation was also observed in ferret HEV-infected ferrets in a primary infection experiment. These results indicate that the ferret HEV infection induced acute hepatitis and persistent infection in ferrets, suggesting that the ferrets are a candidate animal model for immunological as well as pathological studies of hepatitis E.