Prevalence of antibodies to the hepatitis E virus in pigs from countries where hepatitis E is common or is rare in the human population

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a very important public health concern in many d eveloping countries where epidemics of hepatitis E are common. Sporadic cas es of clinical hepatitis E not only occur in these countries but also occur uncommonly in patients with no known epidemiological exposure to HEV in in dustrialized countries. The source of infection in industrialized countries is unknown but it has been suggested that animals might serve as a reservo ir for HEV in both settings. We recently identified and characterized an HE V strain (swine HEV) that infects large numbers of pigs in the United State s. To assess the potential of pigs to serve as a global reservoir of HEV, w e measured the prevalence of HEV antibodies in pigs in two countries where hepatitis E is endemic and two countries where it is not. Swine herds in al l four countries contained many pigs that were seropositive for IgG anti-HE V, although the percentage of seropositive pigs varied greatly from herd to herd. A very limited number of pig handlers in the two endemic countries w ere also tested and most of them were found to be seropositive for HEV. The results from this study suggest that hepatitis E is enzootic in pigs regar dless of whether HEV is endemic in the respective human population. Publish ed 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.(dagger).