Prevalence of hepatitis E virus antibodies in Canadian swine herds and identification of a novel variant of swine hepatitis E virus.

ABSTRACT: Swine hepatitis E virus is a newly identified potentially zoonotic virus from pigs of particular concern for possible direct transmission to a human xenotransplant recipient by organ transplantation. In the present study, prevalence of serum antibodies to hepatitis E virus was examined in Canadian swine herds. A total of 998 serum samples collected from 6-month-old healthy slaughter hogs were examined by enzyme immunoassay and Western blot analysis for antibodies to the recombinant open reading frame 3 (ORF3) protein of hepatitis E virus expressed in Escherichia coli. These samples represented more than 80 different swine production units from five major swine-producing provinces across Canada. From this study, 594 samples (59.4%) were found to be positive for hepatitis E virus antibody. T

SUBMITTER: Yoo D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC96251 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature