Key result
Murine rodents show ~46% fecal HEV positivity, sharing high genomic identity with house shrew strains.
Why the study?
The zoonotic potential of rat hepatitis E virus (HEV) remains unclear, necessitating investigation of HEV prevalence and genomic characteristics in rodents and house shrews.
Cross-Sectional (n=788)
Rodent HEV prevalence signals need for veterinary surveillance; leaves open zoonotic transmission risks and human disease implications.
BACKGROUND: Urban rodents and house shrews are closely correlated in terms of location with humans and can transmit many pathogens to them. Hepatitis E has been confirmed to be a zoonotic disease. However, the zoonotic potential of rat HEV is still unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and genomic characteristics of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in rodents and house shrews. RESULTS: We collected a total of 788 animals from four provinces in China. From the 614 collected murine rodents, 20.19% of the liver tissue samples and 45.76% of the fecal samples were positive for HEV. From the 174 house shrews (Suncus murinus), 5.17% fecal samples and 0.57% liver tissue samples were positive for HEV. All of the HEV sequences obtained in this study belonged to Orthohepevirus C1. However, we observed a lower percentage of identity in the ORF3 region upon comparing the amino acid sequences between Rattus norvegicus and Rattus losea. HEV derived from house shrews shared a high percentage of identity with rat HEV. Notably, the first near full-length of the HEV genome from Rattus losea is described in our study, and we also report the first near full-length rat HEV genomes in Rattus norvegicus from China. CONCLUSION: HEV is prevalent among the three common species of murine rodents (Rattus. norvegicus, Rattus. tanezumi, and Rattus. losea) in China. HEV sequences detected from house shrews were similar to rat HEV sequences. The high identity of HEV from murine rodents and house shrews suggested that HEV can spread among different animal species.
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He et al. (2018) conducted a cross-sectional in Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection (n=788). Murine rodents and house shrews was evaluated on Prevalence of HEV in liver and fecal samples. HEV was prevalent in murine rodents, with 20.19% of liver and 45.76% of fecal samples testing positive, and shared high genomic identity with HEV from house shrews, suggesting interspecies spread.
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