Skip to main content
  • Research article
  • Open access
  • Published:

Seroprevalence and molecular characteristics of hepatitis E virus in household-raised pig population in the Philippines

Abstract

Background

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is a significant public health concern in Asia, and swine is an important source of sporadic HEV infection in human. However, no epidemiological data are available regarding HEV infection among the swine or human population in the Philippines. To assess the HEV infection status among pigs in rural areas, we investigated the molecular characteristics and seroprevalence of HEV among household-raised pigs in San Jose, Tarlac Province, the Philippines.

Result

Serum and rectal swab samples were collected from 299 pigs aged 2–24 months from 155 households in four barangays (villages) between July 2010 and June 2011. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) revealed that 50.3% [95% confidence interval (CI) 44.5–56.2%] and 22.9% (95% CI 18.2–28.1%) of pigs tested positive for anti-HEV IgG and IgM, respectively. HEV RNA was detected in the feces of 22 pigs (7.4%, 95% CI 4.7–10.9%). A total of 103 households (66.5%, 95% CI 58.4–73.8%) had at least one pig that tested positive for anti-HEV IgG or IgM or HEV RNA. The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG and IgM in breeding pig (8–24 months) were higher than that in growing pigs (2–4 months) (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.008, respectively). HEV RNA was more frequently detected in 2–4-month-old pigs (9.2%, 95% CI 5.4–14.6%) than in ≥5-month-old pigs (4.8%, 95% CI 1.1–8.5%) without statistical significance (p = 0.142). HEV RNA showed 0–27.6% nucleotide difference at the partial ORF2 gene among the detected viruses, and a majority of them belonged to subtype 3a (20/22, 90.9%).

Conclusion

We found a high prevalence of HEV antibodies in the household-raised pig population in rural areas of the Philippines, which indicates the potential risk of HEV infection among local residents. Only genotype 3 of HEV was observed, and genetically diverse strains of HEV were found to be circulating in pigs in this study.

Background

Hepatitis E was first documented as a unique clinical entity distinct from hepatitis A and B in water-borne epidemic hepatitis in India in 1978 [1]. Hepatitis E virus (HEV), the sole member of genus Hepevirus in the Hepeviridae family, is the causative agent of self-limited or fulminant hepatitis [2]. The virion of HEV is spherical, nonenveloped, 27–34 nm in diameter, with a single-stranded, positive sense RNA genome. The RNA is approximately 7300 nucleotides in length and contains three open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 encodes nonstructural proteins, while ORF2 encodes capsid proteins and ORF3 encodes a small protein of unknown function [3]. Mammalian HEV falls into four major genetically distinct genotypes based on nucleotide differences [4-6]. Genotypes 1 and 2 are the most common causes of epidemic hepatitis in humans in tropical and subtropical countries with poor sanitation and unsafe water supply [1,7]. Genotypes 3 and 4 are considered to be of zoonotic origin and are together recognized as an important cause of sporadic hepatitis cases in humans both in developing and industrialized countries [6,8,9].

Some evidence indicates that pigs are an important source of zoonotic HEV genotypes 3 and 4. Case reports have shown that viruses recovered from clinical patients with hepatitis E and the consumed pork were genetically similar [8,10]. A cluster of human isolates from autochthonous hepatitis E cases were found to be genetically similar to the local swine strains by phylogenetic analysis [11]. Meta-analysis of 10 cross-sectional studies revealed greater chances of HEV seropositivity in people with occupational exposure to pigs than in the general human population [12].

HEV genotype 3, which was first isolated in 1997 [6] from domestic pigs in the United States, has been shown to be widely distributed in pigs in all continents. Genotype 4 was first reported in China [5,9], and it appears to be present in pigs and humans exclusively in Southeast Asia. Recently, however, genotype 4 has been detected in pigs and in human cases with more severe clinical manifestations than those with other HEV genotypes in Europe [13,14]. Genotypes 3 and 4 are quite diverse and can be further classified into 10 (3a–3j) and seven (4a–4 g) subtypes, respectively, on the basis of five different regions of HEV, including 5994–6294 nucleotide positions of ORF 2 (GenBank accession number M73218) [4].

The increasing documentation of zoonotic HEV in Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos [15-17] suggests a significant health risk for the people. No epidemiological data are available regarding HEV infection among pigs or humans in the Philippines. However, recently, Li et al. reported that genotype 3 of HEV was found in the river water in Manila [18]. HEV infection in commercial pig farms were previously reported; however, there are very few reports on HEV infections in family-scale farms (backyard pig farms), where local people could be more frequently exposed to pigs or pig feces because of the open breeding system and poor sanitation of backyard pigs. The seroprevalence of HEV in family-scale pig farms was higher than that in large-scale pig farms as reported from Thailand [19] and China [20]. In rural areas of the Philippines, backyard pig farms are still quite common, and backyard pigs are an important source of income for pig owners. As a part of the project conducted in the Philippines to assess the prevalence of zoonotic pathogens, including Japanese encephalitis virus and Reston Ebola virus [21], we investigated the molecular characteristics and seroprevalence of HEV among household-raised pigs in four barangays (Villa Aglipay, Moriones, Pao, and Lubigan) in San Jose, Tarlac Province, the Philippines. Notably, San Jose is a third-class municipality and comprises mainly of rural areas in the Tarlac Province (Figure 1), where the density of household-raised pigs is quite high.

Figure 1
figure 1

Maps of study sites in the Philippines. A. Tarlac Province (in green) is located north of the Philippines. B. Barangays of Pao, Villa Aglipay, Moriones, and Lubigan are located in the center of Tarlac Province.

Results

Detection of anti-HEV IgG and IgM in pig sera and HEV RNA in stool swabs

Serum and rectal swab samples were collected from a total of 299 pigs aged 2–24 months (median age, 4 months) from 155 households in four barangays. The median numbers of pigs raised and numbers of samples per household were 2 [interquartile range 1–5] and 1[interquartile range 1–2], respectively. A majority of pigs were healthy, raised in simple piggeries in backyards, fed with commercial feeding or kitchen residues, and living with other domestic animals such as chickens and ducks. Anti-HEV IgG was found in 150 serum samples [50.3%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 44.5–56.2%] from 93 households (60.0%), with the similar average prevalence of 43.4–55.1% among four barangays (Table 1). Anti-HEV IgM was detected in 68 serum samples (22.9%, 95% CI 18.2–28.1%) from 52 households (33.5%). On the other hand, a total of 22 rectal swabs (7.4%, 95% CI 4.7–10.9%) from 16 households (10.3%) were positive for HEV RNA (Table 1). The average prevalence (56.2%, 95% CI 50.4–61.9%) of any of the three markers (anti-HEV IgG, IgM, and RNA) in the pig population was observed at similar range between 47.0% and 62.5% among the four barangays. Overall, 66.5% households (103/155, 95% CI 58.4–73.8%) had pigs positive for either anti-HEV IgG, IgM, or viral RNA. Among the 22 RNA positive samples, six samples were positive for both anti-HEV IgM and IgG and 10 samples were only positive for anti-HEV IgG. The remaining six samples were negative for both anti-HEV IgM and IgG.

Table 1 The detection of anti-HEV IgG, IgM, and HEV RNA in household-raised pigs in four barangays

The presence of anti-HEV IgG, IgM, and HEV RNA in different age groups

The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG (37.6%, 95% CI 30.3–45.2%) was the lowest in growing pigs (P < 0.0001) and then increased in finishing pigs (64.1%, 95% CI 53.6–73.9%) and reached a peak of 78.8% (95% CI 61.1–91.0%) in breeding pigs (Table 2). Also, the prevalence of anti-HEV IgM was the lowest in growing pigs (16.9%, 95% CI 11.6–23.3%), comparing to that in finishing pigs (27.2%, 95% CI 18.4–37.4%) and breeding pigs (42.4%, 95% CI 25.5–60.8%) (p = 0.05 and p = 0.0008, respectively). Growing pigs had the highest prevalence of viral RNA (9.2%, 95% CI 5.4–14.6%), followed by finishing pigs (5.4%, 95% CI 1.8–12.1%), and breeding pigs (3.0%, 95% CI 0.1–15.8%), although it was not statistically significant (p = 0.26 and p = 0.23, respectively).

Table 2 The presence of anti-HEV IgG, IgM, and HEV RNA in pigs of different age groups

Genetic analysis of HEV strains from stool swabs

Phylogenetic analysis of 301 nucleotides corresponding to nucleotide positions 5994–6294 of M73218 in ORF2 revealed that 22 HEV strains in the Philippines belonged to genotype 3 (Figure 2). Pairwise comparison of 22 strains over 301 nucleotides revealed a 0–27.6% nucleotide difference. Compared with representative strains from river water in Manila, the strains in this study showed 10.0–24.0% nucleotide difference. With the exception of two strains (HEV_Vil_PHL_2011_Tjs-224_ORF2 and HEV_Vil_PHL_2010_Tjs-078_ORF2), the other 20 strains fell into a unique cluster within subtype 3a with a genetic distance of 0–4.9%. BLAST analysis revealed that these 20 strains shared less than 94% nucleotide similarities with any other sequence in GenBank. HEV_Vil_PHL_2011_Tjs-224_ORF2 shared the highest similarity (91%) with unclassified strains (JSW-Kyo-FH06L, AB291955) and subtype 3b strains (swJA11, AB082567) from Japan [22] and was also clustered with genotype 3b strains in the phylogenetic tree. The remaining strain HEV_Vil_PHL_2010_Tjs-078_ORF2 displayed 15.9–27.6% pairwise distance with other strains in this study. In the phylogenetic tree, it was clustered with unclassified reference strains from pigs (G3-HEV83-2-27 and G3-4531) and humans (HRC-HE200, HEJSB6151, and E088-STM04C) in Japan and shared 94–100% similarity with them. This cluster was genetically distant from other subtypes and may represent a novel subtype. Strains detected from the same household were closely clustered except two strains (HEV_Vil_PHL_2011_Tjs-223_ORF2 and HEV_Vil_PHL_2011_Tjs-224_ORF2). HEV_Vil_PHL_2011_Tjs-223_ORF2 and HEV_Vil_PHL_2011_Tjs-224_ORF2, which were collected in the same batch of pigs raised in the same household, genetically differed from each other by 15.4% and were grouped into subtype 3a and 3b in the phylogenetic tree, respectively.

Figure 2
figure 2

Phylogenetic analysis of HEV strains from pigs in San Jose, Tarlac Province, the Philippines. The phylogenetic tree was constructed using the neighbor-joining method (Kimura 2-parameter model) based on 301 nucleotides of ORF2 of HEV. Strains from this study were labeled with and tagged with household name (in capital letters) from where they originated. HEV genotype 3 strains from rivers in Manila, the Philippines, which were labeled with ▲, with GenBank accession numbers of KF546258, 546261, 546262, 546271, 546274, and 546277, were also included. Other reference strains were representatives of genotypes 1, 2, and 4 and subtypes 3a–3 g of genotype 3 in other countries. Reference strains were indicated as genotypes or subtypes, name, country, and GenBank accession number. The numbers on branches were bootstrap values (1,000 replicates; values less than 50% were not shown).

Discussion

We used the recombinant antigen (112–660 amino acids of ORF2) of one of the prototype strains of genotype 1 (GenBank accession number D10330), which proved to be effective in detecting HEV antibodies in both human and pig serum [23,24]. Notably, numerous commercial or in-house enzyme immunoassays, which were developed to detect antibodies in human sera, were also adapted to detect anti-HEV in pigs since only one serotype has been described [3,6,25]. We found that the anti-HEV IgG prevalence (50.3%) in pigs from rural communities of the Philippines was much higher than that in a similar study conducted in smallholder-raised pigs in rural villages of Laos (15.3%) [26] and comparable to that in large-scale surveys of pigs of all age groups from commercial pig farms in Japan (56%) [15], Germany (46.9%) [27] and Italy (50.2%) [28]. It is worthwhile to mention that in several other studies, discrepant results have been reported when comparing ELISAs using different antigens of HEV with human or porcine origin for detecting anti-HEV in pigs [29,30]. Compared with the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG, there are limited data on the seroprevalence of anti-HEV IgM in domestic pigs. The seroprevalence of IgM in this study (22.9%) was much higher than that in large-scale surveys in Japan (3%) [15] and similar to that in Spain (28.2%) [31]. Furthermore, 66.5% of households had at least one pig positive for anti-HEV IgG, IgM, or HEV RNA. In the present study, the piggeries of pigs were simple, in poor sanitary conditions and located at the household or near to the household. Such a high level of HEV infection in household-raised pigs, frequent exposure to pigs or pig waste, and poor sanitation in rural areas in the Philippines indicate potential risks of HEV transmission from pigs to local residents. Besides, the local people commonly consume the cooked pig livers, pork and sausages made by local manufactures. Therefore, workers in slaughterhouses and pork handlers in the local area are at potential risk of getting HEV infection. However, there are no available data on viral hepatitis incidence due to HEV in the Philippines. The human health impact of HEV should be properly defined to establish appropriate interventions.

Our data revealed that the seroprevalence of anti-IgG increased with age from 2–4-month-old pigs to 8–24-month-old pigs. A higher seroprevalence of IgG in adult pigs than in young pigs has also been documented in other studies [25,32]. However, according to antibody dynamics studies, there may be two seroprevalence peaks of anti-HEV IgG at less than one month old pigs due to maternal antibody and adult pigs in commercial pig herds [6,33-35]. In the present study, we did not observe the first peak of anti-IgG because the pigs in the present study were ≥2 months old and the maternal anti-IgG could persist up to 8–9 weeks of age in young pigs depending on the titers in breeding pigs [6,34,35]. It has been reported that seroconversion of IgM occurs in pigs aged 2–3 months and its duration varies from 4 to 7 weeks in commercial herds [6,34,35]. However, in some commercial herds, the peak prevalence of IgM was reported in pigs aged 25 weeks, which could be slaughtered, and IgM were also frequently detected in sows (up to 40%) [33]. We observed that the prevalence of IgM increased from 2–4-month-old pigs (16.9%) and reached a peak in 8–24-month-old pigs (42.4%); however, no infectious RNA was detected in rectal swabs of these breeding pigs except one. All these pigs were raised under poor sanitary condition, and breeding pigs usually lived with young pigs in rural communities. The high seroprevalence of IgM in breeding pigs was probably caused by the secondary immune response to frequent HEV exposure as reported among the vaccinated population exposed to measles virus [36]. This quick secondary immune response could prevent viral proliferation in the early phase; therefore, no RNA was detected. In the current study, we have provided important information about HEV infection status of pigs aged above 6 months while a majority of prevalence studies have been performed among pig aged less than 6 months. Six pigs with age ranging from 2–4 months were found negative for both IgG and IgM antibodies in sera but positive for HEV RNA in feces probably because of a recent infection [37]. On the other hand, in 10 pigs with age ranging from 2 to 8 months, RNA was detected in feces and IgG was found positive, but IgM was found negative. Detected IgG antibody might be due to persistent maternal antibody among 2–3 months old pigs (n = 5) and existed antibody from past infection in other five pigs aged 4–8 months. IgM negative results were probably because of a recent recurrent viral infection which could result in a low IgM immune response to HEV and a false negative result of IgM serological test. Moreover, it is possible that positive HEV in stools might reflect transient exposure to the virus through ingestion of contaminated food or water.

The average RNA-positive rate in rectal swab samples in this study (7.4%) was similar to that in Japan (5%) [15], Laos (11.6%) [16] and Thailand (2.9–7.75%) [19,38]. In this study, the viral RNA-positive rate was higher in 2–4-month-old pigs than in adult pigs, however the difference was not found statistically significant. Our finding is in line with other reports which stated that the highest incidence of HEV infections occurs in young pigs (2–4 months old) [15,39]. In Southeast Asia, both HEV genotypes 3 and 4 are circulating in human and swine; however, the geographical distribution of genotypes of zoonotic HEV in pigs varies. In Cambodia [40] and Thailand [19,38], only HEV genotype 3 has been reported in local pigs, while only genotype 4 of HEV has been reported in pigs from Laos [16]. In China [41], Japan [42], Korea [43], Indonesia [17], and Taiwan [44], both genotypes 3 and 4 were circulating in domestic pigs or wild boars. In the present study, we only detected HEV genotype 3 strains and a majority of them (20/22) were classified into the existing subtype 3a. Subtype 3a was also the most frequently detected subtype in Japan, Korea, and North America [4,45,46] as well as in river water in Manila in 2012 [18]. Subtype 3a strains in San Jose shared less than 94% nucleotide similarity with strains in GenBank (including strains from river water in Manila), which suggests that area-specific strains of HEV were circulating in the Philippines. HEV_Vil_PHL_2010_Tjs-078_ORF2 shares 100% sequence identity with the strain (G3-HEV83-2-27, AB740232) from a domestic pig in Japan in 2003; thus, HEV_Vil_PHL_2010_Tjs-078_ORF2 may have the same origin as the strain detected in a domestic pig in Japan. However, the exact transmission route of this virus remains unknown. HEV_Vil_PHL_2010_Tjs-078_ORF2 together with G3-HEV83-2-27 and some unclassified strains from Japan formed a distinct cluster from other subtypes. The full sequence of G3-HEV83-2-27 is available in GenBank (accession number AB740232), and it can also form a distinct cluster in a phylogenetic tree based on the full genome sequence (see Additional file 1: Figure S1). Therefore, this cluster, including HEV_Vil_PHL_2010_Tjs-078_ORF2, could represent a new subtype.

Conclusion

The present study is the first report on the seroprevalence and molecular characterization of HEV in pigs in the Philippines. We found a high proportion of IgG and IgM, and three different subtypes of HEV among household-raised pigs suggesting that the risk of HEV transmission to humans in this geographical area was substantial. Hepatitis E is not included as a notifiable disease in the Philippines, and laboratory testing for acute hepatitis is not routinely performed in the country. Since only pig population from a small geographic area were investigated in the present study, further studies are required to define the genotype distribution in other areas, genetic relationship between HEV strains from swine and human and human health impact of HEV in the Philippines.

Methods

Samples

Swine blood and rectal swab samples from previous cross-sectional survey for validation of an ELISA assay [21] were tested for prevalence of HEV at the research institute for tropical medicine in Manila, Philippines. The sample collection was divided in six phases between July 2010 and June 2011. Households known to have pigs in their backyard farms were visited and owners were asked for the participation into the study. Informed consent was obtained from the pig owners. The pigs were stratified by age in months and selected to have all age groups available in each household. Piglets less than two months old were excluded from the sampling. The sampling was not systematic or random. Up to 50 samples were collected per sampling phase. This study was approved by ethics committee of Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the Animal Welfare Division of Bureau of Animal Industry, the Department of Agriculture.

Assessment of HEV infection by serology

To detect anti-HEV IgM and IgG, ELISA was performed. Virus-like particles (VLPs) were expressed by a recombinant HEV Burma strain (genotype 1) ORF2 (112–660 amino acids of D10330) using baculovirus in Tn5 cells, as described previously [47]. Flat-bottom 96-well polystyrene microplates (Becton, Dickinson and Company, NJ, USA) were coated with purified VLPs (1 μg/ml, 100 μl/well) and incubated at 4°C overnight. Unbound VLPs were washed out with 300 μl of 10 mM phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.05% Tween 20 (PBS-T). The wells were blocked for 1 h with 200 μl of 5% skim milk (Becton, Dickinson and Company, NJ, USA) in PBS-T at 37°C. After the plates were washed three times with PBS-T, swine serum samples (100 μl/well) were added in duplicate at a dilution of 1:200 in PBS-T containing 5% skim milk. The plates were then incubated for 1 h at 37°C. The plates were washed three times as described above and were administered 100 μl of horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-pig IgG (Bethyl, Laboratories, Inc., TX, USA) (1:10,000 dilution) or IgM (Kirkegaard & Perry Laboratories, Inc., MD, USA) (1:2,500 dilution) in PBS-T containing 1% skim milk. The plates were incubated for 1 h at 37°C and washed three times with PBS-T. Subsequently, 100 μl of o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride (Sigma-Aldrich, Co., MO, USA) was added to each well. The plates were incubated in a dark room for 30 min at room temperature, following which 100 μl of 4 N H2SO4 was added to each well. The optical density was measured at 492 nm. Four standard deviation values above the mean OD value of negative controls (n = 4) were applied as the cut-off value for each plate.

Detection and genotyping of HEV infection

Rectal swabs were soaked in a viral transport medium containing Hank’s balanced salt solution supplemented with gelatin, streptomycin, penicillin-G, and amphotericin B. RNA was extracted from 140 μl of sample using the QIAamp MinElute Virus Spin Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Reverse transcription was performed using SuperScript III reverse transcriptase with a random hexamer (Life technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA). A previously described nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [8] was performed to amplify part of ORF2, which corresponds to the nucleotide positions 5939–6316 of the genotype 1 HEV genome (GenBank accession number M73218). The PCR products were purified using the QIAquick® PCR Purification Kit (Qiagen), sequenced using BigDye Terminator version 1.1 (Life technologies), and analyzed using Applied Biosystems 3700 Genetic Analyzer (Life technologies). HEV genotypes were determined by phylogenetic analysis using MEGA (version 5) [48]. The pairwise distance was calculated by the neighbor-joining method, and the phylogenetic tree was constructed by the Kimura 2-parameter model, neighbor-joining method by MEGA 5. Strains in this study were named as HEV_ Barangay code_PHL _year_ID number of strain_ORF2 and were deposited in the GenBank database under the accession number of KJ645943–KJ645964. The GenBank accession numbers of reference strains are given as follows: DQ860010, AB082566, AB194492, AF060669, AB740232, DQ079632, AB671133, AB369689, AB288362, AB291955, AB094279, AB082567, AF296167, AF296165, AF336298, AF336290, AF336293, AB093535, AF332620, AF455784, AB080575, AF296166, AB094250, AF195061, AB591734, AB291955, AB194518, M73218, and M74506.

Availability of supporting data

The data set supporting the results of this article is included within the article and its additional file.

Statistical Analysis

Pigs in this study were classified into three age groups according to local pig production stage: growing pigs (2–4 months), finishing pig (5–7 months), and breeding pigs (8–24 months). The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG, IgM and HEV RNA between different age groups were compared by using Chi-square test in Stata software, version 12 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas), p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Abbreviations

HEV:

Hepatitis E virus

ORF:

Open reading frame

nt:

Nucleotide

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

VLP:

Virus-like particle

Ig:

Immunoglobulin

PBS-T:

Phosphate buffered saline containing 0.05% Tween 20

References

  1. Khuroo MS. Study of an epidemic of non-A, non-B hepatitis. Possibility of another human hepatitis virus distinct from post-transfusion non-A, non-B type. Am J Med. 1980;68(6):818–24.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Emerson SU, Anderson D, Arankalle A, Meng XJ, Purdy M, Schlauder GG, et al. Genus hepevirus. In: Fauquet CM, Mayo MA, Maniloff J, Desselberger U, Ball LA, editors. Virus taxonomy eighth report of the international committee on taxonomy of viruses. London: Elsevier; 2004. p. 853–7.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Khudyakov Y, Kamili S. Serological diagnostics of hepatitis E virus infection. Virus Res. 2011;161(1):84–92.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Lu L, Li C, Hagedorn CH. Phylogenetic analysis of global hepatitis E virus sequences: genetic diversity. Rev Med Virol. 2006;16(1):5–36.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hsieh SY, Yang PY, Ho YP, Chu CM, Liaw YF. Identification of a novel strain of hepatitis E virus responsible for sporadic acute hepatitis in Taiwan. J Med Virol. 1998;55(4):300–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Meng XJ, Purcell RH, Halbur PG, Lehman JR, Webb DM, Tsareva TS, et al. A novel virus in swine is closely related to the human hepatitis E virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997;94(18):9860–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Panduro A, Escobedo Meléndez G, Fierro NA, Ruiz Madrigal B, Zepeda-Carrillo EA, Román S. Epidemiology of viral hepatitis in Mexico. Salud Publica Mex. 2011;53 Suppl 1:S37–45.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Li TC, Chijiwa K, Sera N, Ishibashi T, Etoh Y, Shinohara Y, et al. Hepatitis E virus transmission from wild boar meat. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11(12):1958–60.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang Y, Ling R, Erker JC, Zhang H, Li H, Desai S, et al. A divergent genotype of hepatitis E virus in Chinese patients with acute hapetitis. J Gen Virol. 1999;80(Pt 1):169–77.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Yazaki Y, Mizuo H, Takahashi M, Nishizawa T, Sasaki N, Gotanda Y, et al. Sporadic acute or fulminant hepatitis E in Hokkaido, Japan, may be food-borne, as suggested by the presence of hepatitis E virus in pig liver as food. J Gen Virol. 2003;84(Pt 9):2351–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bouquet J, Tessé S, Lunazzi A, Eloit M, Rose N, Nicand E, et al. Close similarity between sequences of hepatitis E virus recovered from humans and swine, France, 2008–2009. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011;17(11):2018–25.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Wilhelm BJ, Rajić A, Greig J, Waddell L, Trottier G, Houde A, et al. A systematic review/meta-analysis of primary research investigating swine, pork or pork products as a source of zoonotic hepatitis E virus. Epidemiol Infect. 2011;139(8):1127–44.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. der Honing RW H-v, van Coillie E, Antonis AF, van der Poel WH. First isolation of hepatitis E virus genotype 4 in Europe through swine surveillance in the Netherlands and Belgium. PLoS One. 2011;6(8):e22673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Jeblaoui A, Haim-Boukobza S, Marchadier E, Mokhtari C, Roque-Afonso AM. Genotype 4 hepatitis E virus in France: an autochthonous infection with a more severe presentation. Clin Infect Dis. 2013;57(4):e122–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Takahashi M, Nishizawa T, Tanaka T, Tsatsralt-Od B, Inoue J, Okamoto H. Correlation between positivity for immunoglobulin A antibodies and viraemia of swine hepatitis E virus observed among farm pigs in Japan. J Gen Virol. 2005;86(Pt 6):1807–13.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Conlan JV, Jarman RG, Vongxay K, Chinnawirotpisan P, Melendrez MC, Fenwick S, et al. Hepatitis E virus is prevalent in the pig population of Lao People’s Democratic Republic and evidence exists for homogeneity with Chinese Genotype 4 human isolates. Infect Genet Evol. 2011;11(6):1306–11.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Widasari DI, Yano Y, Utsumi T, Heriyanto DS, Anggorowati N, Rinonce HT, Utoro T, Lusida MI, Soetjipto, Asmara W, Hotta H, Hayashi Y. Hepatitis E Virus Infection in Two Different Community Settings with Identification of Swine HEV Genotype 3 in Indonesia. Microbiol Immunol. in press.

  18. Li TC, Yang T, Shiota T, Yoshizaki S, Yoshida H, Saito M, et al. Molecular detection of hepatitis E virus in rivers in the Philippines. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2014;90(4):764–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Hinjoy S, Nelson KE, Gibbons RV, Jarman RG, Chinnawirotpisan P, Fernandez S, et al. A cross-sectional study of hepatitis E virus infection in pigs in different-sized farms in northern Thailand. Foodborne Pathog Dis. 2013;10(8):698–704.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Li W, She R, Wei H, Zhao J, Wang Y, Sun Q, et al. Prevalence of hepatitis E virus in swine under different breeding environment and abattoir in Beijing, China. Vet Microbiol. 2009;133(1–2):75–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Sayama Y, Demetria C, Saito M, Azul RR, Taniguchi S, Fukushi S, et al. A seroepidemiologic study of Reston ebolavirus in swine in the Philippines. BMC Vet Res. 2012;8:82.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Takahashi K, Kitajima N, Abe N, Mishiro S. Complete or near-complete nucleotide sequences of hepatitis E virus genome. Virology. 2004;330(2):501–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Li TC, Zhang J, Shinzawa H, Ishibashi M, Sata M, Mast EE, et al. Empty virus-like particle-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for antibodies of hepatitis E virus. J Med Virol. 2000;62(3):327–33.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Kanai Y, Tsujikawa M, Yunoki M, Nishiyama S, Ikuta K, Hagiwara K. Long-term shedding of hepatitis E virus in the feces of pigs infected naturally, born to sows with and without maternal antibodies. J Med Virol. 2010;82(1):69–76.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Di Bartolo I, Ponterio E, Castellini L, Ostanello F, Ruggeri FM. Viral and antibody HEV prevalence in swine at slaughterhouse in Italy. Vet Microbiol. 2011;149(3–4):330–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Blacksell SD, Myint KS, Khounsy S, Phruaravanh M, Mammen Jr MP, Day NP, et al. Prevalence of hepatitis E virus antibodies in pigs: implications for human infections in village-based subsistence pig farming in the Lao PDR. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2007;101(3):305–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Krumbholz A, Joel S, Neubert A, Dremsek P, Durrwald R, Johne R, et al. Age-related and regional differences in the prevalence of hepatitis E virus-specific antibodies in pigs in Germany. Vet Microbiol. 2013;167(3–4):394–402.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Martinelli N, Luppi A, Cordioli P, Lombardi G, Lavazza A. Prevalence of hepatitis E virus antibodies in pigs in Northern Italy. Infect Ecol Epidemiol. 2011;1:10.

    PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Baechlein C, Schielke A, Johne R, Ulrich RG, Baumgaertner W, Grummer B. Prevalence of Hepatitis E virus-specific antibodies in sera of German domestic pigs estimated by using different assays. Vet Microbiol. 2010;144(1–2):187–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Peralta B, Casas M, de Deus N, Martin M, Ortuno A, Perez-Martin E, et al. Anti-HEV antibodies in domestic animal species and rodents from Spain using a genotype 3-based ELISA. Vet Microbiol. 2009;137(1–2):66–73.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Seminati C, Mateu E, Peralta B, de Deus N, Martin M. Distribution of hepatitis E virus infection and its prevalence in pigs on commercial farms in Spain. Vet J. 2008;175(1):130–2.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Jiménez de Oya N, de Blas I, Blázquez AB, Martín-Acebes MA, Halaihel N, Gironés O, et al. Widespread distribution of hepatitis E virus in Spanish pig herds. BMC Res Notes. 2011;4:412.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Casas M, Cortés R, Pina S, Peralta B, Allepuz A, Cortey M, et al. Longitudinal study of hepatitis E virus infection in Spanish farrow-to-finish swine herds. Vet Microbiol. 2011;148(1):27–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. de Deus N, Casas M, Peralta B, Nofrarías M, Pina S, Martín M, et al. Hepatitis E virus infection dynamics and organic distribution in naturally infected pigs in a farrow-to-finish farm. Vet Microbiol. 2008;132(1–2):19–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Feng R, Zhao C, Li M, Harrison TJ, Qiao Z, Feng Y, et al. Infection dynamics of hepatitis E virus in naturally infected pigs in a Chinese farrow-to-finish farm. Infect Genet Evol. 2011;11(7):1727–31.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Lievano FA, Papania MJ, Helfand RF, Harpaz R, Walls L, Katz RS, et al. Lack of evidence of measles virus shedding in people with inapparent measles virus infections. J Infect Dis. 2004;189 Suppl 1:S165–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Bouwknegt M, Rutjes SA, Reusken CB, Stockhofe-Zurwieden N, Frankena K, de Jong MC, et al. The course of hepatitis E virus infection in pigs after contact-infection and intravenous inoculation. BMC Vet Res. 2009;5:7.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Keawcharoen J, Thongmee T, Panyathong R, Joiphaeng P, Tuanthap S, Oraveerakul K, et al. Hepatitis E virus genotype 3f sequences from pigs in Thailand, 2011–2012. Virus Genes. 2013;46(2):369–70.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Kaba M, Davoust B, Marie JL, Barthet M, Henry M, Tamalet C, et al. Frequent transmission of hepatitis E virus among piglets in farms in Southern France. J Med Virol. 2009;81(10):1750–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Caron M, Enouf V, Than SC, Dellamonica L, Buisson Y, Nicand E. Identification of genotype 1 hepatitis E virus in samples from swine in Cambodia. J Clin Microbiol. 2006;44(9):3440–2.

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Liu P, Li L, Wang L, Bu Q, Fu H, Han J, et al. Phylogenetic analysis of 626 hepatitis E virus (HEV) isolates from humans and animals in China (1986–2011) showing genotype diversity and zoonotic transmission. Infect Genet Evol. 2012;12(2):428–34.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Sato Y, Sato H, Naka K, Furuya S, Tsukiji H, Kitagawa K, et al. A nationwide survey of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in wild boars in Japan: identification of boar HEV strains of genotypes 3 and 4 and unrecognized genotypes. Arch Virol. 2011;156(8):1345–58.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Kim YM, Jeong SH, Kim JY, Song JC, Lee JH, Kim JW, et al. The first case of genotype 4 hepatitis E related to wild boar in South Korea. J Clin Virol. 2011;50(3):253–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Wu JC, Chen CM, Chiang TY, Tsai WH, Jeng WJ, Sheen IJ, et al. Spread of hepatitis E virus among different-aged pigs: two-year survey in Taiwan. J Med Virol. 2002;66(4):488–92.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Kim SE, Kim MY, Kim DG, Song YJ, Jeong HJ, Lee SW, et al. Determination of fecal shedding rates and genotypes of swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) in Korea. J Vet Med Sci. 2008;70(12):1367–71.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Huang FF, Haqshenas G, Guenette DK, Halbur PG, Schommer SK, Pierson FW, et al. Detection by reverse transcription-PCR and genetic characterization of field isolates of swine hepatitis E virus from pigs in different geographic regions of the United States. J Clin Microbiol. 2002;40(4):1326–32.

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Li TC, Yamakawa Y, Suzuki K, Tatsumi M, Razak MA, Uchida T, et al. Expression and self-assembly of empty virus-like particles of hepatitis E virus. J Virol. 1997;71(10):7207–13.

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Tamura K, Peterson D, Peterson N, Stecher G, Nei M, Kumar S. MEGA5: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods. Mol Biol Evol. 2011;28(10):2731–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the Local Government Unit of San Jose Municipality of Tarlac Province, the Philippines for their considerable support. We especially thank Dr. Lorna Baculanta, Provincial Veterinarian of Provincial Veterinary Office in Tarlac and Ms. Cecille Lopez,Epidemiologist of Tarlac Provincial Hospital for their valuable assistance. We thank the staff of RITM, Department of Virology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, and Tohoku-RITM Collaborating Research Center on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases for technical assistance and logistic support. This work received financial support from a grant-in-aid for the Japan Initiative for Global Research Network on Infectious Diseases (J-GRID) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hitoshi Oshitani.

Additional information

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

XFL carried out molecular analysis and draft the manuscript. MS participated in the design of the study, carried out the sample collection, immunological assay and involved to drafting the manuscript. YS participated in the design of the study, carried out the sample collection, immunological assay and molecular analysis. ES carried out the molecular analysis. FFM and HOG worked on the coordination with local government unit and carried out the sample collection. YF helped in phylogenetic analysis for the revised manuscript. MS carried out the epidemiological analysis and helped to draft the manuscript. TCL prepared the virus-like particle for immunological assay. AS carried out the sample collection and helped to draft the manuscript. HO conceived of the study and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Authors’ information

XFL and YS are postgraduate students at Department of Virology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. ES is an undergraduate student in Medical School of Tohoku University. FFM and HOG are staff at Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. TCL is staff at Department of Virology II, National Institute of Infectious Disease. YF, MS, MS, AS and HO are staff at Department of Virology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine.

Additional file

Additional file 1: Figure S1.

Phylogenetic analysis of HEV based on complete genome. The phylogenetic tree was constructed by the neighbor-joining method with the Kimura 2-parameter model. The strain G3-HEV83-2-7 (sharing 100% similarity in 301 nucleotides with HEV_Vil_PHL_2010_Tjs-078_ORF2) with ♦ label could represent a new subtype under genotype 3 based on full genome sequence analysis.

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, X., Saito, M., Sayama, Y. et al. Seroprevalence and molecular characteristics of hepatitis E virus in household-raised pig population in the Philippines. BMC Vet Res 11, 11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-015-0322-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-015-0322-z

Keywords