Using improved technology for filter paper-based blood collection to survey wild Sika deer for antibodies to hepatitis E virus

Abstract

Recent reports from Japan implicated wild Sika deer (Cervus nippon) in the zoonotic transmission of hepatitis E to humans. Seroprevalence studies were performed to determine if imported feral populations of Sika deer in Maryland and Virginia posed a similar risk of transmitting hepatitis E virus (HEV). Hunters collected blood on filter paper disks from freshly killed deer. The disks were desiccated and delivered to a collection point. The dried filters were weighed to estimate the amount of blood absorbed and were eluted and collected in one tube via a novel extraction system. The procedure was quantified and validated with negative and positive serum and blood samples obtained from domestic Sika deer before and after immunization with HEV recombinant capsid protein, respectively. None of the 155 tested samples contained antibody to HEV, suggesting that Sika deer in these populations, unlike those in Japan, do not pose a significant zoonotic threat for hepatitis E. However, the new method developed for collecting and eluting the samples should prove useful for field studies of many other pathogens.

Investigating the Use of Protein Saver Cards for Storage and Subsequent Detection of Bovine Anti-Brucella abortus Smooth Lipopolysaccharide Antibodies and Gamma Interferon

“…Since the development of these cards, they have been used in hospital laboratories for testing card eluates by ELISA and PCR for the clinical diagnosis of multiple diseases (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). These cards have also been used in veterinary diagnostics, most recently for the detection of anti-Brucella antibodies in caribou (19)(20)(21). To our knowledge, the use of these cards to directly store and elute bovine blood serum and plasma samples for the detection of anti-Brucella lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antibodies and IFN-␥ is a novel use for a well-established method.…”

Restricted Enzooticity of Hepatitis E Virus Genotypes 1 to 4 in the United States

“…These include rodents (1,10,12,14,25,27,28,51,60,64), cats (31,35,41,43), dogs (1,35,41,60,71), horses (14,16,49,71), donkeys (14), goats (14,16,45,52,71), sheep (5,45,61,66,68), cattle (1,5,14,21,60,63,71), rabbits (16,17), nonhuman primates (46,67), mongooses (34,42), chickens (18,23,52,60,71), ducks …”

“…In the United States, no studies have investigated HEV infection in animals other than rodents (10,12,27,53), pigs (38,39), chickens (23), and sika deer (68). To evaluate the extent of HEV enzooticity more broadly, we devised a doubleantigen sandwich assay (DASA) for anti-HEV detection that is trans-genus-wide and circumvents the obligatory requirement in indirect assays for the analyte reporter to be an antibody.…”

Efficacy of serum samples stored on filter paper for the detection of antibody to Leptospira spp. by microagglutination test (MAT)

“…Filter paper are often used as an alternative to collecting serum samples since they can be dried in the air and stored. Filter papers are used for several purposes (Roy et al, 1992(Roy et al, , 1994Jafri et al, 1998;Fenollar and Raoult, 1999;El Mubarak et al, 2004;Yu et al, 2007;Chuang et al, 2009;Mehta et al, 2009;Lakshmy et al, 2010;Näslund et al, 2011); however, there are no studies with serology of leptospirosis and analysis of the stability of antibodies under different storage conditions. In addition, seroepidemiological surveys are often difficult because of a lack of facilities for the collection and transportation of serum samples.…”