Key result
The pooled prevalence of human bocavirus in shellfish was 9.2% using a common-effects model and 12.9% using a random-effects model, indicating a high prevalence and potential food safety risk.
Why the study?
Human bocavirus is an emerging pathogen causing gastroenteritis and respiratory infections, and shellfish has been implicated in its foodborne dissemination.
Meta-Analysis (n=695)
The meta-analysis demonstrates a pooled human bocavirus prevalence of 9.2% to 12.9% in shellfish, indicating a potential foodborne transmission route that requires further surveillance.
May signal foodborne HBoV risk via shellfish; leaves open need for transmission studies before surveillance changes.
Human bocavirus (HBoV) is an emerging pathogen causing gastroenteritis/respiratory tract infection. Shellfish has been implicated in foodborne HBoV dissemination. The present investigation aimed at synthesising shellfish-associated HBoV data. Shellfish-HBoV data were mined from public repositories using topic-specific algorithm. A total of 30 data sources was identified of which 5 were synthesised. The average HBoV positivity and sample-size was 12 ± 9.2 and 134.2 ± 113.6, respectively. HBoV was studied in mollusc with 3.7-83.3% crude prevalence. The pooled HBoV prevalence in shellfish was 9.2% (7.2-11.8; 5 studies) and 12.9% (1.8-53.9; 5 studies) in common-effects and random-effects model respectively, with 0.12-94.89% prediction interval (PI). Sensitivity analysis yielded 8.7% (6.7-11.2; PI = 1.99-29.48%) prevalence. HBoV1 and HBoV2 pooled prevalence in shellfish was 7.91% (1.61-31.09; 3 studies) and 12.52% (0.01-99.60; 3 studies), respectively. HBoV3 prevalence was reported in one single study as 6.96% (4.41-10.35). In conclusion, the present study revealed high HBoV prevalence in shellfish, signifying the need to characterise HBoV and subtypes circulating in non-mollusc shellfish. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to mitigate the food safety risk that may result from HBoV contaminated shellfish since shellfish-borne HBoV is not routinely assessed and might be underestimated at present.
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Ekundayo et al. (2024) conducted a meta-analysis in Human bocavirus (HBoV) contamination (n=695). Human bocavirus (HBoV) in shellfish was evaluated on Pooled prevalence of human bocavirus in shellfish (9.2% prevalence, 95% CI 7.2-11.8). The pooled prevalence of human bocavirus in shellfish was 9.2% using a common-effects model and 12.9% using a random-effects model, indicating a high prevalence and potential food safety risk.
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