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While performing a nationwide survey of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection among 450 wild boars (Sus scrofa leucomystax) that had been captured in Japan between November 2005 and March 2010, we found 16 boars (3. 6%) with ongoing HEV infection: 11 had genotype 3 HEV, four had genotype 4 HEV and the remaining boar was infected with HEV of an unrecognized genotype (designated wbJOY₀6). The entire wbJOY₀6 genome was sequenced and was found to comprise 7246 nt excluding the poly (A) tail. The wbJOY₀6 isolate was highly divergent from known genotype 1-4 HEV isolates derived from humans, swine, wild boars, deer, mongoose and rabbits (n=145) by 22. 6-27. 7%, rat HEV isolates (n=2) by 46. 0-46. 2%, and avian HEV isolates (n=5) by 52. 5-53. 1% over the entire genome. A Simplot analysis revealed no significant recombination between the existing HEV strains of genotypes 1-4. Therefore, we propose that the wbJOY₀6 isolate is the first member of a previously unidentified genotype.
Takahashi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.