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Hepatitis E Virus: First Description in a Pet House Rabbit. A New Transmission Route for Human?
Author(s) -
Caruso C.,
Modesto P.,
Prato R.,
Scaglione F. E.,
De Marco L.,
Bollo E.,
Acutis P. L.,
Masoero L.,
Peletto S.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
transboundary and emerging diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.392
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1865-1682
pISSN - 1865-1674
DOI - 10.1111/tbed.12348
Subject(s) - virology , hepatitis e virus , transmission (telecommunications) , rabbit (cipher) , biology , phylogenetic tree , hepatitis , virus , house mouse , zoology , genetics , genotype , gene , statistics , mathematics , electrical engineering , engineering
Summary In this work, we identified for the first time hepatitis E virus ( HEV ) in a pet house rabbit, an adult 7 years old female of domestic rabbit ( O ryctolagus cuniculus ). Importantly, the resulting phylogenetic tree showed that the HEV strain identified in the pet house rabbit was closely related to a human HEV sequence; this finding reawakens concerns regarding the zoonotic risk represented by HEV in animals and expands to house rabbit the spectrum of potential source of infection for humans. Potential for domestic transmission of HEV to humans should be taken into account.