Investigations on the occurrence of infections with hepatitis E virus and related viruses in zoo animals

• Main Author: Spahr, Carina
• Other Authors: Universität Leipzig
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: hepatitis-E-virus; zoonosis; reservoir-animals; carnivores; non-human-primates; rats; Zoonose; Reservoirtiere; Zootiere; Karnivoren; Affen; Ratten; info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/636.089; ddc:636.089; Norway; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-388865; https://ul.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A38886; https://ul.qucosa.de/api/qucosa%3A38886/attachment/ATT-0/

Introduction Hepatitis E is a worldwide distributed disease, which is caused by the hepatitis E virus (HEV). In addition to humans, domestic pigs, wild boars, rabbits and dromedaries can be subclinically infected as reservoir animals with the zoonotic HEV genotypes 3, 4 and 7. In addition, HEV and HEV-like viruses have been described sporadically in other mammals, as well as in birds and fish, although their distinct role as reservoirs or carriers of the virus is still unclear. Aims The aim of the study was therefore to analyse in more detail the importance of different mammalian species, which do not belong to the known HEV reservoirs, for the epidemiology of HEV infections, thus enabling a better assessment of the risk of virus transmission by these animal species. Material and Methods Fourteen non-human primate species and 66 other mammal species, as well as Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) and feeder rats (Rattus norvegicus forma domestica) from German zoos were selected for the investigations. In total 259 individual non-human primate sera and 244 individual mammalian sera of clinically healthy zoo animals were analysed for the presence of HEV-specific antibodies (ab) using a species-independent double-antigen sandwich ELISA. The non-human primate sera were additionally examined using a commercial human ELISA. Real-time reverse-transcription (RT)-PCR, nested broad-spectrum RT-PCR and a rat HEV-specific RT-PCR were used to detect the HEV genome in sera of mammals and rat liver samples. A commercial and an in-house method were used for the DNA sequencing. Results HEV-specific ab were detected in 3.9% (10/259) of the non-human primate sera (4 species) and 11.5% (28/244) of the mammalian sera (16 species). The highest detection rates were recorded with 33.3% (9/27) in porcines and with 27.0% (10/37) in carnivores. HEV-RNA was detected in a clinically healthy female Syrian brown bear (Ursus arctos syriacus) and in 8 of the investigated Norway rats. Sequence analysis identified the virus as rat HEV; the viruses ...