Hepatitis E Virus in Wild Boars and Spillover Infection in Red and Roe Deer, Germany, 2013-2015

Abstract

To determine animal hepatitis E virus (HEV) reservoirs, we analyzed serologic and molecular markers of HEV infection among wild animals in Germany. We detected HEV genotype 3 strains in inner organs and muscle tissues of a high percentage of wild boars and a lower percentage of deer, indicating a risk for foodborne infection of humans.

Keywords: Germany; Hepatitis E virus; fallow deer; red deer; roe deer; spillover; viruses; wild boar; zoonoses.

Figure 1

Box plot comparison of HEV RNA load in wild boar and deer specimens from Germany, 2013–2015. Boxes indicate first (bottom) and third quartile; horizontal line within boxes indicate median; error bars indicate minimum and maximum. p values for pairwise comparison of groups are shown. GE, genome equivalents; HEV, hepatitis E virus.

Figure 2

Phylogenetic relationship of HEV sequences derived from wild boars and deer from Germany, 2013–2015. The tree is based on a 280-bp fragment of the ORF1 (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene) region. The strain designations, animal species (Wb, wild boar), sample type, and sampling year (season A, 2013–2014; season B: 2014–2015) are indicated for the novel strains. The GenBank accession numbers, the corresponding hosts, the geographic origins and genotypes are indicated for selected additional strains. Reference strains are given in bold; the genotype of the novel strains is indicated at right. Bootstrap values >50% are shown. The tree is scaled in nucleotide substitution units and was constructed using MEGALIGN software (ClustalW [http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalw2/], IUB residue weight table, 1,000 trials and 111 random seeds in bootstrap analysis). HEV, hepatitis E virus; ORF, open reading frame.