Determination of Hepatitis E Virus in Sheep and Cattle by Serological and Molecular Methods DNA Sequences Analysis

Hepatitis E virus is an important zoonotic food pathogen with natural animal reservoirs and remarkable increases recently. Hepatitis E virus infection is usually asymptomatic in animals, but it can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis in humans and represents an emerging public health problem worldwide. However, there is a lack of scientific reports about the epidemiological characteristics of hepatitis E virus in domestic ruminants in Turkey. This study aimed to investigate hepatitis E virus in cattle and sheep. Data were derived from cattle and sheep using blood sera and liver tissues from slaughterhouses in some provinces in Turkey. The samples were examined for anti-hepatitis E virus IgG by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method and hepatitis E virus RNA by the molecular method. In this study, hepatitis E virus was investigated in 200 liver tissues and 414 blood sera from cattle and sheep. Among all samples, anti-hepatitis E virus IgG seropositivity was present in 16.5% and 5.0% of cattle and sheep, respectively. While the highest hepatitis E virus seroprevalence was determined as 33.3% in cattle in Diyarbakir, it was determined as 6.25% in sheep in Malatya. In the molecular study, hepatitis E virus RNA found in one Elazig cattle blood serum sample shared 97.58% similarity with rat hepatitis E virus. The results showed that sheep and cattle can be a source of hepatitis E virus infection for consumers.

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