Prevalence and transmission of hepatitis E virus in domestic swine populations in different European countries

BMC Research Notes

Wim HM van der Poel⁵  David Rodriguez-Lazaro⁸  Marta Hernandez⁸  Marta Diez-Valcarce⁸  Petra Vasickova⁶  Franco M Ruggeri⁷  Ilaria Di Bartolo⁷  Giorgia Angeloni⁷  Fabio Ostanello²  Francesca Martelli⁴  Malcolm Banks⁴  Maria SJ Nascimento¹  Joao R Mesquita¹  Jantien A Backer³  Alessandra Berto⁴ 

[1]Faculty of Pharmacy of Porto University, Department of Biological Sciences, Porto, Portugal

[2]Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences, University of Bologna, Ozzano Emilia, Bologna, Italy

[3]Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen Univerisity and Research Centre, Lelystad, The Netherlands

[4]Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Adllestone, Surrey, United Kingdom

[5]National Centre for Zoonoses research, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

[6]Veterinary Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic

[7]Department of Veterinary Public Health & Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Rome, Italy

[8]Instituto Tecnológico Agrario de Castilla y León (ITACyL), Junta de Castilla y León, Valladolid, Spain

关键词: European countries;    Prevalence;    Modeling;    PCR;    Foodchain;    Pork;    Foodborne disease;    Hepatitis E virus;   

Others  :  1166496
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-5-190

 received in 2012-01-12, accepted in 2012-04-25,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 and 4 can cause liver disease in human and has its main reservoir in pigs. HEV investigations in pigs worldwide have been performed but there is still a lack of information on the infection dynamics in pig populations.

Findings

The HEV transmission dynamics in commercial pig farms in six different European countries was studied. The data collected show prevalence in weaners ranging from 8% to 30%. The average HEV prevalence in growers was between 20% and 44%. The fatteners prevalence ranged between 8% and 73%. Sows prevalence was similar in all countries. Boar faeces were tested for HEV only in Spain and Czech Republic, and the prevalence was 4.3% and 3.5% respectively. The collected data sets were analyzed using a recently developed model to estimate the transmission dynamics of HEV in the different countries confirming that HEV is endemic in pig farms.

Conclusions

This study has been performed using similar detection methods (real time RT-PCR) for all samples and the same model (SIR model) to analyse the data. Furthermore, it describes HEV prevalence and within-herd transmission dynamics in European Countries (EU): Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands and United Kingdom, confirming that HEV is circulating in pig farms from weaners to fatteners and that the reproductive number mathematical defined as R₀ is in the same range for all countries studied.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Berto et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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