Anti-HEV antibodies in domestic animal species and rodents from Spain using a genotype 3-based ELISA

Bibiana Peralta , Maribel Casas , Nilsa de Deus , Marga Martín , Anna Ortuño , Eva Pérez-Martín , Sonia Pina , Enric Mateu

A truncated ORF2 capsid HEV antigen derived from a genotype 3 strain was developed in insect cells and insect larvae, and compared with the Sar55 antigen and a commercial ELISA. The antigen expressed in insect cells showed a better correlation with Sar55 ( value ()=0.84) than the insect larvae antigen (=0.69), and a better reproducibility as indicated by the intra and interplate variation coefficients. Commercial ELISA designed for human diagnosis but adapted to animal use using specific secondary antibodies demonstrated to have a very low sensitivity. The insect cell expressed antigen was used to develop an ELISA to detect antiHEV-IgG in serum samples of different domestic animal and rodents. Seropositivity in the studied animal populations was of 71.4% for pigs, 0.60% for goats, 1.92% for sheep, and 11.11% for cats. None of the 1170 cattle samples or 166 rodent samples analyzed was positive.

Mots clés: HEV; Domestic animals; Rodents; ELISA; Genotype 3

Bibiana Peralta, Maribel Casas, Nilsa de Deus, Marga Martín, Anna Ortuño, et al.. Anti-HEV antibodies in domestic animal species and rodents from Spain using a genotype 3-based ELISA. Veterinary Microbiology, 2009, 137 (1-2), pp.66. ⟨10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.01.006⟩. ⟨hal-00485529⟩