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New Progress Has Been Made in Studies on Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) Infection and Its Transmission Mode

The Group on Zoonoses and Comparative Medicine of School of Agriculture and Biology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University conducted the study in some parts of the central China by the partial sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of several HEV strains from the general human and swine populations, and discovered that human and swine HEV strains belong to distinct subgenotypes, and the human HEV didn’t originate from the swine populations. This further suggested that besides cross-species transmission, HEV has certain interspecies transmission. The relevant paper “Hepatitis E Virus Infection in Central China Reveals No Evidence of Cross-Species Transmission between Human and Swine in This Area” was published in the internationally famous journal PLoS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008156).Hepatitis E Virus is a zoonotic pathogen, posing a potential threat to the human and animal health and public health. Currently, the cross-species transmission between swine and humans has taken places in several countries and regions. The study reveals that the specific geography, environment, climate, population, living habits and other factors are all likely to lead to the HEV infection and the diversification of transmission mode. The research result can provide scientific evidence for a further in-depth study on HEV molecular epidemiology, ecology and comprehensive prevention.