Rat hepatitis E virus <i>(Rocahepevirus ratti)</i> exposure in cats and dogs, Hong Kong

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ABSTRACT

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) variants infecting humans belong to two species: Paslahepevirus balayani (bHEV) and Rocahepevirus ratti (rat hepatitis E virus; rHEV). R. ratti is a ubiquitous rodent pathogen that has recently been recognized to cause hepatitis in humans. Transmission routes of rHEV from rats to humans are currently unknown. In this study, we examined rHEV exposure in cats and dogs to determine if they are potential reservoirs of this emerging human pathogen. Virus-like particle-based IgG enzymatic immunoassays (EIAs) capable of differentiating rHEV & bHEV antibody profiles and rHEV-specific real-time RT–PCR assays were used for this purpose. The EIAs could detect bHEV and rHEV patient-derived IgG spiked in dog and cat sera. Sera from 751 companion dogs and 130 companion cats in Hong Kong were tested with these IgG enzymatic immunoassays (EIAs). Overall, 13/751 (1.7%) dogs and 5/130 (3.8%) cats were sero-reactive to HEV. 9/751 (1.2%) dogs and 2/130 (1.5%) cats tested positive for rHEV IgG, which was further confirmed by rHEV immunoblots. Most rHEV-seropositive animals were from areas in or adjacent to districts reporting human rHEV infection. Neither 881 companion animals nor 652 stray animals carried rHEV RNA in serum or rectal swabs. Therefore, we could not confirm a role for cats and dogs in transmitting rHEV to humans. Further work is required to understand the reasons for low-level seropositivity in these animals.

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Hepatitis E virus and chronic hepatitis in organ-transplant recipients.

Jean-Michel Mansuy, Nathalie Danjoux, Florence Abravanel … (2008)

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is considered an agent responsible for acute hepatitis that does not progress to chronic hepatitis. We identified 14 cases of acute HEV infection in three patients receiving liver transplants, nine receiving kidney transplants, and two receiving kidney and pancreas transplants. All patients were positive for serum HEV RNA. Chronic hepatitis developed in eight patients, as confirmed by persistently elevated aminotransferase levels, serum HEV RNA, and histologic features of chronic hepatitis. The time from transplantation to diagnosis was significantly shorter and the total counts of lymphocytes and of CD2, CD3, and CD4 T cells were significantly lower in patients in whom chronic disease developed. Copyright 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society.

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The global burden of hepatitis E virus genotypes 1 and 2 in 2005.

Nancy G Stevens, David B Rein, J Theaker … (2012)

We estimated the global burden of hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotypes 1 and 2 in 2005. HEV is an emergent waterborne infection that causes source-originated epidemics of acute disease with a case fatality rate thought to vary by age and pregnancy status. To create our estimates, we modeled the annual disease burden of HEV genotypes 1 and 2 for 9 of 21 regions defined for the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (the GBD 2010 Study), which represent 71% of the world's population. We estimated the seroprevalence of anti-HEV antibody and annual incidence of infection for each region using data from 37 published national studies and the DISMOD 3, a generic disease model designed for the GBD Study. We converted incident infections into three mutually exclusive results of infection: (1) asymptomatic episodes, (2) symptomatic disease, and (3) death from HEV. We also estimated incremental cases of stillbirths among infected pregnant women. For 2005, we estimated 20.1 (95% credible interval [Cr.I.]: 2.8-37.0) million incident HEV infections across the nine GBD Regions, resulting in 3.4 (95% Cr.I.: 0.5-6.5) million symptomatic cases, 70,000 (95% Cr.I.: 12,400-132,732) deaths, and 3,000 (95% Cr.I.: 1,892-4,424) stillbirths. We estimated a probability of symptomatic illness given infection of 0.198 (95% Cr.I.: 0.167-0.229) and a probability of death given symptomatic illness of 0.019 (95% Cr.I.: 0.017-0.021) for nonpregnant cases and 0.198 (95% Cr.I.: 0.169-0.227) for pregnant cases. The model was most sensitive to estimates of age-specific incidence of HEV disease. Copyright © 2011 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

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Chronic Infection With Camelid Hepatitis E Virus in a Liver Transplant Recipient Who Regularly Consumes Camel Meat and Milk.

Guan-Huei Lee, Boon Tan, Esmeralda Chi-Yuan Teo … (2016)

There have been increasing reports of food-borne zoonotic transmission of hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3, which causes chronic infections in immunosuppressed patients. We performed phylogenetic analyses of the HEV sequence (partial and full-length) from 1 patient from the Middle East who underwent liver transplantation, and compared it with other orthohepevirus A sequences. We found the patient to be infected by camelid HEV. This patient regularly consumed camel meat and milk, therefore camelid HEV, which is genotype 7, might infect human beings. Our finding links consumption of camel-derived food products to post-transplantation hepatitis E, which, if detected at early stages, can be cured with antiviral therapy and reduced administration of immunosuppressive agents.

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Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Emerg Microbes Infect

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Emerg Microbes Infect

Title: Emerging Microbes & Infections

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

ISSN (Electronic): 2222-1751

Publication date (Electronic, pub): 29 March 2024

Publication date (Electronic, collection): 2024

Publication date PMC-release: 29 March 2024

Volume: 13

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: 2337671

Affiliations

[a ]Department of Microbiology, School of Clinical Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong , Pokfulam, People’s Republic of China

[b ]Centre for Virology, Vaccinology and Therapeutics, Health@InnoHK, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

[c ]Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

[d ]State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Hong Kong , Pokfulam, People’s Republic of China

[e ]Carol Yu Centre for Infection, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong , Pokfulam, People’s Republic of China

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[CONTACT ] Siddharth Sridhar sid8998@ 123456hku.hk Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital , 19/F T Block, 102 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2024.2337671.

Author information

Estie Hon-Kiu Shun https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5112-2276

James Yiu-Hung Tsoi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0045-637X

Nicholas Foo-Siong Chew https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9479-1493

Jade Lee-Lee Teng https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3912-4057

Vincent Chi-Chung Cheng https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1765-7706

Kwok-Yung Yuen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2083-1552

Siddharth Sridhar https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2022-8307

Article

Publisher ID: 2337671

DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2024.2337671

PMC ID: 11018080

PubMed ID: 38551320

SO-VID: 6c3286a5-472e-490e-9508-7c362fc8f532

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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Rat hepatitis E virus (Rocahepevirus ratti) exposure in cats and dogs, Hong Kong

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Special Issue: Management of Viral Hepatitis in the Post-Omics Era

Most cited references 47

Hepatitis E virus and chronic hepatitis in organ-transplant recipients.

The global burden of hepatitis E virus genotypes 1 and 2 in 2005.

Chronic Infection With Camelid Hepatitis E Virus in a Liver Transplant Recipient Who Regularly Consumes Camel Meat and Milk.

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