Detection of subtypes (3a, 4a and 4d) and high prevalence of Hepatitis E virus in Korean wild boar

ABSTRACT The hepatitis E virus (HEV) is known to have 4 genotypes but only one serotype. Genotype 1 and 2 infect humans only and genotype 3 and 4 infect humans, pigs and other animal species. Pig and wild boar are also known as reservoirs of HEV infection. Of the 2,736 wild boars captured from 2011 to 2016 to investigate the HEV prevalence among Korean wild boars, 1,041 serum samples were high seropositive (38.1%; 95% CI: 35.5-40.5) for HEV, which were detected using the anti-HEV antibody ELISA and the highest prevalence rate was 40.6% (684/1683) in 2016. Twenty four HEV strains were also identified from 1,859 wild boar bloods captured between 2015 and 2016. The phylogenetic tree constructed based on the partial ORF2 gene revealed that the 23 Korean wild boar HEV strains belonged to genotype 4 (4a and 4d) showing the nucleotide sequences identities 83.4-100%. The one Korean wild boar HEV strain belonged to genotype 3, segregated into subgenotype 3a. This suggested that major circulating in Korean wild boars is genotype 4a whereas genotype 3a and -4d is minor. It is important to the human public health that HEV with wild boar have potential high risk factor for transmission to human due to eating culture of Korean people with undercooked wild boar gallbladder.