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. 2017 Jul;23(7):1191-1193.
doi: 10.3201/eid2307.170318.

Rabbit Hepatitis E Virus Infections in Humans, France

Florence Abravanel, Sébastien Lhomme, Hicham El Costa, Betoul Schvartz, Jean-Marie Peron, Nassim Kamar, Jacques Izopet

Rabbit Hepatitis E Virus Infections in Humans, France

Florence Abravanel et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) has been detected in rabbits, but whether rabbit HEV strains can be transmitted to humans is not known. Of 919 HEV-infected patients in France during 2015-2016, five were infected with a rabbit HEV strain. None of the patients had direct contact with rabbits, suggesting foodborne or waterborne infections.

Keywords: France; HEV; chronic infections; hepatitis; hepatitis E; hepatitis E virus; humans; infections; rabbit hepatitis E virus; rabbits; ribavirin; viruses; zoonoses.

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Figures

Figure
Figure
Phylogenetic tree for a 347-nt sequence within open reading frame 2 of hepatitis E viruses, France. Genetic distances were calculated by using the Kimura 2-parameter method, and the tree was plotted using the by the neighbor-joining method. Values along branches are bootstrap values acquired after 100 replications. Virus sequences obtained from patients in this study (gray shading) were compared with reference sequences of subtypes 3 viruses according to the proposal of Smith et al. (3). GenBank accession numbers, genotypes, and countries of origin are listed. Reference sequence in bold is from a hepatitis E virus genotype 3-ra isolated from a human. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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