Evolutionary study of potentially zoonotic hepatitis E virus genotype 3 from swine in Northeast Brazil

Submitted by Paulo Silva ([email protected]) on 2019-09-27T12:48:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Evolutionary study of potentially zoonotic hepatitis E virus genotype 3 from swine in Northeast Brazil..pdf: 1548800 bytes, checksum: 2a9dce848f940d9c83c57a7209deddb1 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Paulo Silva ([email protected]) on 2019-09-27T13:48:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Evolutionary study of potentially zoonotic hepatitis E virus genotype 3 from swine in Northeast Brazil..pdf: 1548800 bytes, checksum: 2a9dce848f940d9c83c57a7209deddb1 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2019-09-27T13:48:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Evolutionary study of potentially zoonotic hepatitis E virus genotype 3 from swine in Northeast Brazil..pdf: 1548800 bytes, checksum: 2a9dce848f940d9c83c57a7209deddb1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Aggeu Magalhães. Departamento de Virologia. Recife, PE, Brasil / Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Berlin Institute of Health. Institute of Virology. Berlin, Germany.Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro. Instituto de Veterinária. Seropédica, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Aggeu Magalhães. Departamento de Virologia. Recife, PE, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Aggeu Magalhães. Departamento de Virologia. Recife, PE, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Aggeu Magalhães. Departamento de Microbiologia. Recife, PE, Brasil.Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco. Departamento de Medicina Veterinária. Recife, PE, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Aggeu Magalhães. Departamento de Virologia. Recife, PE, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Aggeu Magalhães. Departamento de Virologia. Recife, PE, Brasil.Hepatitis E virus (HEV), an emerging virus associated with acute hepatic disease, leads to thousands of deaths worldwide. HEV has already been reported in Brazil; however, there is a lack of epidemiological and molecular information on the genetic variability, taxonomy, and evolution of HEV. It is thus unclear whether hepatitis E is a neglected disease in Brazil or it has low relevance for public health in this country. Here, for the first time, we report the presence of HEV in Northeast Brazil. A total of 119 swine faecal samples were screened for the presence of HEV RNA using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and further confirmed by conventional RT-PCR; among these, two samples were identified as positive. Molecular evolution analyses based on capsid sequences revealed that the samples had close proximities to HEV sequences belonging to genotype 3 and were genetically related to subtype 3f isolated in humans. Parsimony ancestral states analysis indicated gene flow events from HEV cross-species infection, suggesting an important role of pig hosts in viral spillover. HEV's ability for zoonotic transmission by inter-species host switching as well as its possible adaptation to new animal species remain important issues for human health