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Molecular and serological survey of hepatitis E virus infection among domestic pigs in Inner Mongolia, China

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Abstract

To evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in Inner Mongolia, China, serum samples obtained from 356 2- to 4-month-old pigs on 14 farms in Inner Mongolia were tested for the presence of anti-HEV antibodies and HEV RNA. Overall, 186 pigs (52%) tested positive for anti-HEV antibodies, while 30 pigs (8%) had detectable HEV RNA levels. The 30 HEV isolates recovered from the viremic pigs were phylogenetically classified into genotype 4 and differed from each other by up to 15.3% in a 412 nt sequence within ORF2. The Inner Mongolian swine HEV strains were most similar to human or swine HEV strains isolated in the other provinces of China but differed by 15.9–18.9% from those in Mongolia (formerly known as Outer Mongolia). These results indicate that farm pigs in Inner Mongolia are frequently infected with markedly divergent genotype 4 HEV strains that may be indigenous to China.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Inner Mongolia Agriculture University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China

    Jinshan

  2. College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agriculture University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China

    Dugarjavin Manglai

  3. Division of Virology, Department of Infection and Immunity, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, 3311-1 Yakushiji, Shimotsuke-Shi, Tochigi-Ken, 329-0498, Japan

    Jirintai, Masaharu Takahashi, Shigeo Nagashima & Hiroaki Okamoto

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  1. Jinshan
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  6. Hiroaki Okamoto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroaki Okamoto.

Additional information

The nucleotide sequence data reported in this study have been assigned DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank accession numbers AB550613–AB550642 for 30 swine HEV sequences.

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Jinshan, Jirintai, Manglai, D. et al. Molecular and serological survey of hepatitis E virus infection among domestic pigs in Inner Mongolia, China. Arch Virol 155, 1217–1226 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-010-0706-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-010-0706-0

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