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DIFFERENT FECAL SHEDDING PATTERNS OF TWO COMMON STRAINS OF HEPATITIS E VIRUS AT THREE JAPANESE SWINE FARMS

Zoonotic infections caused by eating the meat of deer, wild boar, and pig have been suggested in Japan, a country that is not epidemic for hepatitis E caused by hepatitis E virus (HEV). This virus is widely spread in domestic pigs in both epidemic and non-epidemic countries. We studied fecal HEV shedding patterns on three Japanese farms that had two common genotype III HEV strains. Two of the three farms had high shedding peaks (75% and 100%) in pigs 1–3 months of age, suggesting that these animals had the highest risk of spreading HEV through feces. Another farm had a low shedding rate in animals six months of age and a low prevalence of the IgG antibody to HEV. Fecal IgA antibody to HEV was found in sucking pigs < 13 days of age on farms that had high and low shedding patterns. A small fraction of pigs (3 of 43 [7%]) at the finishing stage (5–6 months of age) still shed HEV on the three farms.

Received April 28, 2006. Accepted for publication July 3, 2006.

Financial support: This study was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the Zoonosis Control Project of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, and by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

^* Address correspondence to Hidetoshi Ikeda, National Institute of Animal Health, 3-1-5 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken 305-0856, Japan. E-mail: hikeda{at}affrc.go.jp

Authors’ addresses: Izumi Nakai, Kanako Kato, Ayako Miyazaki, Masaaki Yoshii, Hiroshi Tsunemitsu, and Hidetoshi Ikeda, National Institute of Animal Health, 3-1-5 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken 305-0856, Japan. Tian-Cheng Li and Naokazu Takeda, Department of Virology II, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Gakuen 4-7-1, Musashi-Murayama, Tokyo 208-0011, Japan.

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