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Surveillance of hepatitis A and E viruses contamination in shellfish in Thailand

2011; Oxford University Press; Volume: 53; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1472-765x.2011.03152.x

1472-765X

A. Namsai, S Louisirirotchanakul, N. Wongchinda, Uamporn Siripanyaphinyo, P. Virulhakul, Pilaipan Puthavathana, Khin Saw Aye Myint, M. Gannarong, R. Ittapong,

Veterinary medicine and infectious diseases

Aims: To survey for hepatitis A virus (HAV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) contamination in edible bivalve shellfish. Methods and Results: A total of 213 shellfish (52 oysters, 69 cockles and 92 mussels) collected from a culture farm and two retailed markets were investigated for HAV and HEV contamination by reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) assay using HA2‐HA1 (capsid region) and HE366‐HE363 (ORF2/3 overlapping region) primers, respectively. It was found that 3·8% of the shellfish and 2·9 and 6·5% of the cockle and mussel, respectively, showed positive for HAV detection. Nucleotide sequencing of all the 8 HAV‐positive shellfish revealed 97–100% similarity to HAV subgenotype IA. Interestingly, viruses were found more frequently in the gills than in digestive tissue (4·5%vs 0·5%, P = 0·045). All the shellfish were negative for HEV. Conclusion: Significant contamination of HAV in edible bivalve shellfish was observed. Beside digestive tissue, gills are one of the important samples for viral genome detection. Significance and Impact of the study: HAV‐contaminated shellfish can play a role as reservoirs and/or vehicles in faecal‐oral transmission in Thailand, and further monitoring of such a contamination is required.