Wildlife reservoir for Hepatitis E virus, Southwestern France

Sébastien Lhomme (1, 2, 3) , Sokunthea Top (1, 2) , Stéphane Bertagnoli (4) , Martine Dubois (1, 2, 3) , Jean-Luc Guerin (4) , Jacques Izopet (1, 2, 3)

1 INSERM - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
2 UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier
3 CHU Toulouse - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse
4 IHAP - Interactions hôtes-agents pathogènes [Toulouse]

Pigs are a reservoir for hepatitis E virus (HEV). To determine the relative contribution of game to the risk for human HEV infection in southwestern France, we tested wildlife samples. HEV RNA was in 3.3% of wildlife livers, indicating that in this region, eating game meat is as risky as eating pork.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Sébastien Lhomme, Sokunthea Top, Stéphane Bertagnoli, Martine Dubois, Jean-Luc Guerin, et al.. Wildlife reservoir for Hepatitis E virus, Southwestern France. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2015, 21 (7), pp.1224-1226. ⟨10.3201/eid2107.141909⟩. ⟨hal-02629901⟩