Hepatitis E virus (HEV) deriving from manure application runoffs and faecal waste spill over of swine and human origin bypass wastewater treatment plants and contaminate coastal waters. Shellfish bioaccumulate enteric viruses such as HEV from fecally contaminated coastal waters and under current European Regulations, shellfish sanitary status surveillance is mandatory but only by means of bacterial faecal indicators. The sea urchins are under the same regulations and their vulnerability to fecal contamination has been pointed out. Since they are consumed raw and with no steps to control/reduce hazards, sea urchin contamination with enteric viruses can represent a food safety risk. Hence, the aim of the present study was to screen sea urchin gonads destined for human consumption for the presence of HEV.

HEV was detected and quantified in gonads of sea urchins collected in north Portugal by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assay targeting the ORF3 region, followed by genotyping by a nested RT-PCR targeting the ORF2 region. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis clustered the HEV sequence within genotype 3, subgenotype e.

This the first study reporting HEV contamination of sea urchins. We hypothesize that like shellfish, sea urchins can also be a food vehicle for HEV transmission to humans.

猪粪和人类粪便中的粪便径流和粪便废物溢出产生的戊型肝炎病毒（HEV）绕开废水处理厂，污染了沿海水域。贝类生物会从受粪便污染的沿海水域中积累肠道病毒，例如戊型肝炎病毒，根据现行的欧洲法规，对贝类卫生状况的监测是强制性的，但只能通过细菌性粪便指标进行。海胆遵循相同的规定，并指出了它们对粪便污染的脆弱性。由于海藻是未经加工而消耗的，没有任何控制/减少危害的步骤，因此肠道病毒对海胆的污染可能构成食品安全风险。因此，本研究的目的是针对HEV的存在筛选用于人类食用的海胆性腺。

通过针对ORF3区域的逆转录定量PCR（RT-qPCR）分析，然后通过针对ORF2区域的巢式RT-PCR进行基因分型，在葡萄牙北部收集的海胆性腺中检测到HEV并对其进行定量。测序和系统发育分析将HEV序列聚集在基因型3，亚基因型e中。

这是第一个报告海胆受HEV污染的研究。我们假设海胆像贝类一样，也可能是戊型肝炎病毒向人类传播的食物载体。