Surveillance for rat hepatitis E in wastewater networks, Italy.

ABSTRACT: Rat hepevirus is an emerging zoonotic pathogen associated with human hepatitis and distantly related to the hepatitis E virus. By using broadly reactive primers for hepevirus, we detected viral RNA in 68/155 (43.9%) of sewage specimens collected from 14 wastewater treatment plants serving about half of the population of Abruzzo, Italy. On sequence analysis, the 68 strains showed 79.0%-91.6% identities to reference sequences of rodent and human origin, segregating in different genetic groups with a clear geographic/wastewater treatment plant (WWTP)-related pattern.IMPORTANCEHepatitis E virus (HEV) infection constitutes a significant health problem worldwide. In recent years, in addition to the zoonotic HEV3 and HEV4, emerging highly divergent hepevirus of rat origin (rat HEV [RHEV]) has bee

SUBMITTER: Palombieri A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10714833 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature