Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the causative agent of Hepatitis E, and is a plus-stranded RNA virus. The genome of HEV is approximately 7.2 kb and contains three open reading frames, ORF1, ORF2 and ORF3. ORF2 encodes the capsid protein, and is the target for molecular diagnosis. HEV is an emerging public health concern, and has caused large water-borne epidemics in developing countries. In Europe, sporadic hepatitis E outbreaks have been reported.
In Japan, hepatitis E has linked to eating raw or undercooked meat from deer, wild boar or pigs, suggesting zoonotic transmission. Swine HEV has been detected in pig herds in Europe, but no information exist on HEV circulation in European wild boars.
In this study, the presence of HEV in a wild boar population in of a Northern Italy Regional Park was investigated.
Detection of HEV was accomplished by a nested reverse-transcription PCR on bile samples from 88 shot animals, aged 4-37 months. HEV RNA was identified in 22 animals (25%). Animal sex, age, weight, and biometrics measures were evaluated in association with infection. No significant differences (P > 0.05) in the prevalence of infection relating to any animal characteristics were found. Positive PCR samples were sequenced to investigate correlation bwith human and swine European strains of HEV. Phylogenetic analysis on the nucleotide sequences from 10 PCR product confirmed that only one HEV strain was circulating in the wild boar population considered, and that this strain was closer to human and swine HEV strains circulating in Europe than to wild boar Japanese strains
