Hepatitis E virus genotype 3 in bovine livers slaughtered in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

Foodborne viruses are becoming a global concern as they overwhelm the health system and have the potential to spread globally. Among them, some genotypes of hepatitis E virus (HEV), which is one of the main causes of acute hepatitis in humans, have a zoonotic potential and can be found in foods of animal origin. Infected farm animals are a possible source of the virus, either by direct contact with animal excreta or meat. In the present study, 240 bovine liver samples from slaughter carried out in Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, were analyzed and tested for the presence of HEV. After performing PCR, 5.4% of positive samples were observed. One of the samples could be identified by molecular phylogenetic analysis as belonging to genotype 3, for which pigs are natural reservoirs, but has not been reported in bovine meat and products so far.

Keywords: Farm animals; Food security; HEV; Public health.

Fig. 1

Phylogenetic tree of a HEV-positive sample found in a bovine liver from the city of Encruzilhada do Sul/RS (marked with ■), showing its relationship with HEV genotype 3. The tree was built using a method of associating neighbors with 500 replicates in the self-initialization test. Evolutionary distances were calculated using Kimura 2-parameter method