Full genome analysis of swine genotype 3 hepatitis E virus isolated from eastern China

摘要

Hepatitis E is believed to occur in both endemic and sporadic forms in developing countries, which causes a major public health problem in Asia and Africa (Meng, ; Wang et al., ). Recent studies have documented that the disease is also endemic in many industrialized countries (Wenzel et al., ). The causative agent, hepatitis E virus (HEV), belonging to the genus Orthohepevirus, is a non-enveloped RNA virus with a single-stranded, positive-sense genome of approximately 7.2 kb (Smith et al., ). The genome consists of a short 5' un-translated region (UTR), three open reading frames (ORFs), and a 3' UTR containing a poly(A) tail (Meng, ). Four recognized major genotypes of HEV are identified: genotype 1 (Asian and African strains), genotype 2 (a Mexican strain), genotype 3 (primarily from America and Europe, and some Asian countries), and genotype 4 (mainly Asian strains) (Smith et al., ). Previous study revealed that HEV genotype 4 is the dominant zoonotic HEV genotype in China (Wang et al., ). However, infections with HEV 3 have been found more commonly in recent years in China (Liu et al., ; Zhang et al., ). To date, only one full genome of Chinese swine genotype 3 HEV strain from Shanghai has been documented (Si et al., ). We report here the first full genome sequence of a genotype 3 swine HEV strain from Zhejiang, China.