High occurrence of hepatitis E virus in raw pork liver and pork liver pâté produced in the Canadian province of Quebec

Abstract

The Hepatitis E virus is widespread throughout the world and causes sporadic cases of liver disease. In industrialized countries, its transmission is zoonotic, with pigs, deer, and wild boar being major reservoirs. Humans can be infected by ingesting raw or undercooked contaminated meat products. In the Canadian province of Quebec, HEV has been detected previously in pork liver and chops. In the present study, we analyzed 83 pork liver pâtés sold in local grocery stores and 79 raw pork livers obtained from Quebec hog processors. HEV RNA was extracted and detected by RT-qPCR. HEV RNA was amplified in 29% of the pâtés and 4% of the raw pork livers. Out of all amplified PCR-positive samples, only one showed a product during electrophoresis and was sent for sequencing. The resulting sequence matched a strain belonging to genotype 3 (HEV-3). This pilot study shows that HEV is present frequently in pork liver-based products in the province of Quebec.

The molecular epidemiology of hepatitis E virus genotype 3 in Canada

“…For example, the majority of infections in France belong to clades e, f, and g [ 34 ] and infections in Italy are mostly associated with subtypes 3f [ 16 ]. The Canadian pork isolates mostly belong to subtypes 3a and 3b [ 22 , 23 ]; therefore, the presence of a few clinical isolates in Canada that belong to subtypes 3c, 3e, 3f, and 3g could be attributed to the consumption of imported meat products, or possibly travel to endemic regions of Europe. An extensive phylogenetic analysis of HEV-3 isolated from farmed pigs in Europe has also revealed that subtypes 3c, 3e, 3f, and 3g are most common, while there are only a few isolates that belong to 3a, and 3b [ 35 ].…”

“…In Canada, HEV-3 infections in clinical cases and their molecular characteristics have not been described. However, several studies have reported the presence of HEV-3 genome in swine and cervid species as well as pork products [ 20 – 23 ].…”