In industrialized countries, hepatitis E is now recognized as an emerging zoonosis. Autochthonous cases have been increased over recent years in Europe and are mainly associated with HEV-3 infections. Pigs and wild boars are considered the main reservoirs of the zoonotic HEV-3 and HEV-4 genotypes. Over the past decade, the number of wild boars has drastically increased in Europe. Due to habitats closer to humans and domestic animals, the role of wild boar as a reservoir of the zoonotic HEV is considered to be an emerging issue. In this study, we investigated the presence of HEV RNA by a real-time RT-PCR assay in paired liver and muscle samples collected from 196 wild boars (Sus scrofa) hunted in the two areas of Central and Southern Italy. Twenty animals (10.2%) were HEV RNA positive in livers, 11 of which were also positive in muscles. The ORF2 and ORF1 partial viral sequences were obtained for nine paired livers and muscles, and when aligned were identical to each other. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed detection of different HEV-3 subtypes: 3c, 3f, 3i and some that were not assigned to any subtypes that have so far been identified. Results need further investigation because they are based on analyses of sequences of short genome regions. Nevertheless, we observed that the same strains were circulating in the wild boar populations from the two investigated areas, confirming persistence of the same HEV strains in the wild boar population over time.

中文翻译：

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在意大利野猪的肝脏和肌肉组织中检测戊型肝炎病毒。

在工业化国家，戊型肝炎现在被认为是一种新兴的人畜共患病。近年来，欧洲的本地病病例有所增加，主要与HEV-3感染有关。猪和野猪被认为是人畜共患性HEV-3和HEV-4基因型的主要贮藏库。在过去的十年中，欧洲野猪的数量急剧增加。由于栖息地更接近人类和家畜，野猪作为人畜共患HEV的蓄水池的作用被认为是一个新兴问题。在这项研究中，我们通过实时RT-PCR分析在从196头野猪（Sus scrofa）采集的成对的肝脏和肌肉样本中调查了HEV RNA的存在）在意大利中部和南部两个地区狩猎。20只动物（10.2％）的肝HEV RNA阳性，其中11只肌肉也阳性。获得了九对肝脏和肌肉的ORF2和ORF1部分病毒序列，并且在对齐时彼此相同。系统发育分析证实可以检测到不同的HEV-3亚型：3c，3f，3i，还有一些尚未分配给迄今已确定的亚型。由于结果基于短基因组区域的序列分析，因此需要进一步研究。然而，我们观察到，来自两个调查区域的野猪种群中正在传播相同的毒株，从而证实了相同的HEV毒株在野猪种群中的持续存在。