Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (9): 2599-2608.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.09.023

• PREVENTIVE VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Detection and Genetic Evolution of Hepatitis E Virus in Tibetan Pigs in Sichuan

CAO Hui1, YANG Danjiao3, ZHANG Min3, LI Ping3, ZHANG Chaohui4, TANG Cheng1,2, ZHANG Bin1,2*   

  1. 1. College of Animal & Veterinary Sciences, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu 610041, China;
    2. The Animal Disease Prevention and Control Innovation Team in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Chengdu 610041, China;
    3. Animal Husbandry Science Institute of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, Kangding 626000, China;
    4. Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, Kangding 626000, China
  • Received:2020-12-30 Online:2021-09-23 Published:2021-09-26

Abstract: The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence and genetic evolution of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in Tibetan pigs in Sichuan. Three hundred and thirty-two Tibetan pig fecal samples collected from 22 Tibetan pig farms in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province from 2018 to 2020 were tested for HEV by RT-PCR, and the positive samples were genotyped. The results of RT-PCR showed that the positive rate of HEV nucleic acid was 20.48% (68/332, 95% CI=16.3%-25.2%), the positive rate of HEV pig farms was 77.27% (17/22, 95% CI=54.6%-92.2%), the positive rate of healthy samples was 2.86% (3/105, 95% CI=0.6%-8.1%), and the positive rate of diarrhea samples was 28.63% (65/227, 95% CI=22.8%-35.0%) in 22 large-scale Tibetan pig farms. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all positive strains were G4 type. In order to further study the evolution process of epidemic strains in this area, Bayesian evolutionary analysis software was used to estimate the divergence time, and the results showed that the divergence time of epidemic strains in Tibetan pigs was as early as 1999 and as late as 2016. The complete genome sequences were obtained from one positive sample each year, and the nucleic acid sequence identities were 89.5%-93.1%. Recombination was found in SWU/301/2019 by analysis of three genome-wide recombinations, and the SWU/301/2019 recombination region was located at 3 746-4 655 bp of ORF1. This study is the first to investigate HEV in Tibetan pigs in Sichuan. The results show that there is a certain degree of HEV infection in Tibetan pigs in Sichuan, which provides a reference for the prevention and control of HEV infection in Tibetan pigs in Sichuan and for the in-depth study of genetic variation and biological characteristics of HEV in Tibetan pigs in Sichuan.

Key words: Sichuan Tibetan pig, hepatitis E virus, genome, genetic analysis

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