García Nerea, Hernández Marta, Gutierrez-Boada Maialen, Valero Antonio, Navarro Alejandro, Muñoz-Chimeno Milagros, Fernández-Manzano Alvaro, Escobar Franco Matías, Martínez Irene, Bárcena Carmen, González Sergio, Avellón Ana, Eiros Jose M, Fongaro Gislaine, Domínguez Lucas, Goyache Joaquín, Rodríguez-Lázaro David
VISAVET Health Surveillance Centre, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Division of Microbiology, Department of Biotechnology and Food Science, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain.
Front Microbiol. 2020 Jan 28;10:2990. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02990. eCollection 2019.
Zoonotic hepatitis E, mainly caused by hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype (gt) 3, is a foodborne disease that has emerged in Europe in recent decades. The main animal reservoir for genotype 3 is domestic pigs. Pig liver and liver derivates are considered the major risk products, and studies focused on the presence of HEV in pig muscles are scarce. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the presence of HEV in different organs and tissues of 45 apparently healthy pigs from nine Spanish slaughterhouses (50% national production) that could enter into the food supply chain. Anti-HEV antibodies were evaluated in serum by an ELISA test. Ten samples from each animal were analyzed for the presence of HEV RNA by reverse transcription real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). The overall seroprevalence obtained was 73.3% (33/45). From the 450 samples analyzed, a total of 26 RT-qPCR positive samples were identified in the liver (7/45), feces (6/45), kidney (5/45), heart (4/45), serum (3/45), and diaphragm (1/45). This is the first report on detection of HEV RNA in kidney and heart samples of naturally infected pigs. HEV RNA detection was negative for rib, bacon, lean ham, and loin samples. These findings indicate that pig meat could be considered as a low risk material for foodborne HEV infection.
人畜共患戊型肝炎主要由戊型肝炎病毒（HEV）基因3型引起，是近几十年来在欧洲出现的一种食源性疾病。3型的主要动物宿主是家猪。猪肝及其衍生物被认为是主要的风险产品，而针对猪肌肉中HEV存在情况的研究较少。本研究的目的是评估来自西班牙9家屠宰场（占全国产量的50%）的45头看似健康的猪的不同器官和组织中HEV的存在情况，这些猪可能进入食品供应链。通过ELISA试验评估血清中的抗HEV抗体。通过逆转录实时PCR（RT-qPCR）分析每头动物的10个样本中HEV RNA的存在情况。获得的总体血清阳性率为73.3%（33/45）。在分析的450个样本中，共在肝脏（7/45）、粪便（6/45）、肾脏（5/45）、心脏（4/45）、血清（3/45）和膈肌（1/45）中鉴定出26个RT-qPCR阳性样本。这是关于自然感染猪的肾脏和心脏样本中检测到HEV RNA的首次报告。肋骨、培根、瘦火腿和里脊肉样本的HEV RNA检测均为阴性。这些发现表明猪肉可被视为食源性HEV感染的低风险材料。
