Detection of hepatitis E virus in wild boar (Sus scrofa) livers

The routes of transmission of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in industrialised countries are largely unknown, but several studies suggest that HEV can be a porcine zoonosis. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of HEV in the wild boar (Sus scrofa) and to determine the genetic relationships between HEV sequences recovered from wild boars and from domestic pigs and humans. HEV RNA was detected by real time reverse transcriptase PCR in 7/285 (2.5%) liver samples from wild boars hunted in South-Eastern France. HEV sequences were recovered from five wild boars and belonged to genotype 3f. These sequences shared 89–100% nucleotide identity with each other and were genetically close to HEV sequences recovered from humans in Southern France. Wild boars in South-Eastern France may be a source of HEV transmission to humans.