The prevalence of hepatitis E virus infection in chicken and ducks in China

To understand hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in chicken and ducks in China,1647 sera of chicken and ducks collected from 15 provinces of China were tested for anti-HEV antibody and HEV antigen with ELISA. Samples from Shaanxi,Tibet and Hainan as well as all the HEV antigen positive samples from other provinces were further conducted HEV RNA detection by nested RT-PCR. The 54 out of 1507 chicken sera were positive for anti-HEV antibody and 26 for HEV antigen,and the positive rates of antibody and antigen in chicken were 3.58% and 1.73% respectively. In the 140 sera of ducks,10 were positive for anti-HEV antibody and 2 were positive for HEV antigen,with the positive rates of 7.14% and 1.43% respectively. Both the positive rates of anti-HEV antibody and antigen showed no significant difference between chicken and ducks. No sample was found to be HEV RNA positive. These results indicated that HEV is prevalent in chicken and ducks in China,but the virus type are still waiting to confirm.