RT Journal Article T1 Liver Transudate, a Potential Alternative to Detect Anti-Hepatitis E Virus Antibodies in Pigs and Wild Boars (Sus scrofa) A1 Navarro Gómez, Alejandro A1 Bárcena Asensio, María Carmen A1 Pozo Piñol, Pilar A1 Díez Guerrier, Alberto Antoine A1 Martínez Alares, Irene A1 Polo, Coral A1 Duque, Clara A1 Rodríguez-Lázaro, David A1 Goyache Goñi, Joaquín A1 García Benzaquén, Nerea AB In recent years, cases of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection have increased in Europe in association with the consumption of contaminated food, mainly from pork products but also from wild boars. The animal’s serum is usually tested for the presence of anti-HEV antibodies and viral RNA but, in many cases such as during hunting, an adequate serum sample cannot be obtained. In the present study, liver transudate was evaluated as an alternative matrix to serum for HEV detection. A total of 125 sera and liver transudates were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at different dilutions (1:2, 1:10, 1:20), while 58 samples of serum and liver transudate were checked for the presence of HEV RNA by RT-qPCR. Anti- HEV antibodies were detected by ELISA in 68.0% of the serum samples, and in 61.6% of the undiluted transudate, and in 70.4%, 56.8%, and 44.8% of 1:2, 1:10, or 1:20 diluted transudate, respectively. The best results were obtained for the liver transudate at 1:10 dilution, based on the Kappa statistic (0.630) and intraclass correlation coefficient (0.841). HEV RNA was detected by RT-qPCR in 22.4% of the serum samples and 6.9% of the transudate samples, all samples used for RT-qPCR were positive by ELISA. Our results indicate that liver transudate may be an alternative matrix to serum for the detection of anti-HEV antibodies. PB MDPI SN 2076-2607 YR 2020 FD 2020 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/93734 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/93734 LA eng NO Navarro, A.; Bárcena, C.; Pozo, P.; Díez-Guerrier, A.; Martínez, I.; Polo, C.; Duque, C.; Rodríguez-Lázaro, D.; Goyache, J.; García, N. Liver Transudate, a Potential Alternative to Detect Anti-Hepatitis E Virus Antibodies in Pigs and Wild Boars (Sus scrofa). Microorganisms 2020, 8, 450. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8030450 NO Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Funding: This research was funded by the Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), grant number RTA 2014-00024-C04-04. Clara Duque´s contract is partially financed by the“Consejería de Educación, Juventud y Deporte de la Comunidad de Madrid” (Iniciativa de Empleo Juvenil) and the European Social Fund (PEJ-2017-AI/SAL- 6740). NO Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (España) NO Comunidad de Madrid NO European Commission DS Docta Complutense RD 8 abr 2025