Evidence of hepatitis E infection in swine and humans in the East Region of Romania.
OBJECTIVE
Swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) is considered to be a new zoonotic agent due to its close genomic resemblance to the human HEV. The aim of this study was to determine human HEV seroprevalence in eastern Romania and to characterize circulating swine HEV sequences.


METHODS
Serological investigations of human serum samples were done using a commercial ELISA kit (MP Biomedicals). Swine faecal samples were tested to detect the HEV ORF2 sequence by nested reverse transcription PCR.


RESULTS
One hundred and forty-eight human serum samples were tested for anti-HEV IgG of which 22 were found to be positive. Fresh swine faeces (pools) were collected from five farms in eastern Romania. Six out of 19 pooled samples were positive for HEV RNA. Phylogenetic analysis based on alignment of the ORF2 sequence indicated that the Romanian swine HEV isolates belonged to genotype 3.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first study showing HEV to be present in Romanian pig herds and that the human population is exposed.
['Aniţă|Adriana|A|', 'Gorgan|Lucian|L|', 'Aniţă|Dragoş|D|', 'Oşlobanu|Luanda|L|', 'Pavio|Nicole|N|', 'Savuţa|Gheorghe|G|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D000818:Animals D002648:Child D005260:Female D005838:Genotype D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies D016751:Hepatitis E D016752:Hepatitis E virus D006524:Hepatitis, Viral, Animal D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010802:Phylogeny D012383:Romania D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies D013552:Swine D013553:Swine Diseases D055815:Young Adult
Swine Human Hepatitis E virus Seroprevalence PCR