Viruses, Vol. 15, Pages 1594: First Insight into the Seroepidemiology of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) in Dogs, Cats, Horses, Cattle, Sheep, and Goats from Bulgaria

Viruses, Vol. 15, Pages 1594: First Insight into the Seroepidemiology of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) in Dogs, Cats, Horses, Cattle, Sheep, and Goats from Bulgaria Viruses doi: 10.3390/v15071594 Authors: Ilia Tsachev Krasimira Gospodinova Roman Pepovich Katerina Takova Todor Kundurzhiev Gergana Zahmanova Kristin Kaneva Magdalena Baymakova In recent years, hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection has been found to be widespread among different animal species worldwide. In Bulgaria, high HEV seropositivity was found among pigs (60.3%), wild boars (40.8%), and East Balkan swine (82.5%). The aim of the present study was to establish the seroprevalence of HEV among dogs, cats, horses, cattle, sheep, and goats in Bulgaria. In total, 720 serum samples from six animal species were randomly collected: dogs—90 samples; cats—90; horses—180; cattle—180; sheep—90; and goats—90. The serum samples were collected from seven districts of the country: Burgas, Kardzhali, Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Sliven, Smolyan, and Stara Zagora. The animal serum samples were tested for HEV antibodies using the commercial Wantai HEV-Ab ELISA kit (Beijing, China). The overall HEV seroprevalence among different animal species from Bulgaria was as follows: dogs—21.1%; cats—17.7%; horses—8.3%; cattle—7.7%; sheep—32.2%; and goats—24.4%. We found...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research