2026-06-29T15:51:13Zhttps://docta.ucm.es/rest/oai/request

oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/1294922025-12-20T01:04:22Zcom_20.500.14352_14col_20.500.14352_15

Hepatitis E virus in pigs at the moment of slaughter in Spain, 2015 and 2017 García Benzaquén, Nerea Hernández, Marta Santamaría-Palacios, Jorge Martínez Alares, Irene Navarro Gómez, Alejandro Muñoz-Chimeno, Milagros Escobar, Franco Fongaro, Gislaine Yeramian, Nadine Trząskowska, Monika Avellón, Ana Eiros, José María Domínguez Rodríguez, Lucas José Valero, Antonio Goyache Goñi, Joaquín Rodríguez-Lázaro, David 636.09 Epidemiology Food safety Hepatitis E Hepatitis E virus Pigs Slaughterhouse Spain Veterinaria 3109 Ciencias Veterinarias Credit authorship contribution statement Nerea García: Writing – review & editing, Project administration, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Marta Hernandez: ´ Investigation. Jorge Santamaría-Palacios: Investigation. Irene Martínez: Investiga tion. Alejandro Navarro: Conceptualization. Milagros Munoz-Chi ˜ meno: Investigation. Franco Escobar: Investigation. Gislaine Fongaro: Investigation. Nadine Yeramian: Investigation. Monika Trząskowska: Investigation. Ana Avellon: ´ Methodology, Investigation. Jose María Eiros: Investigation. Lucas Domínguez: Conceptualization, Investigation. Antonio Valero: Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis. Joaquín Goyache: Writing – review & editing, Project administration, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. David Rodríguez-Lazaro: ´ Writing – review & editing, Writing – orig inal draft, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization We investigated the presence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in pigs at the moment of slaughter in Spain in years 2015 and 2017. A total of 1786 caecal content, liver, and serum samples from animals at slaughterhouses were tested by reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and anti-HEV antibodies were evaluated in 623 serum samples by an ELISA test. The overall seroprevalence obtained was 70.9 %. A total of 398 RT-qPCR positive samples were identified in caecal content (26.8 %; 156/583), serum (21.8 %; 136/623) and liver (18.3 %; 106/580). A total of 32 RT-qPCR positive samples were genotyped; 3f (84.4 %) and the 3c (9.4 %) being the most prevalent subgenotypes. This is the first report on detection of HEV in pigs at the moment of slaughter with a Spain nation-wide representation. The data show a large high seroprevalence (70.9 %) in pigs, while the presence of the virus (HEV RNA) was significantly lower. HEV RNA detection varied markedly between matrices, with caecal samples showing higher positivity (30–50 %) than serum (5–25 %); both simple and interaction GEE models confirmed strong effects of sample type and its interaction with year on prevalence estimates. However, the percentage of positive liver samples (18.3 %) and the concurrence between the HEV 3 subtypes identified (3f, 3m and 3c) and those identified in human patients in Spain, underscores the possibility of foodborne zoonosis. It can represent a real risk for consumers if pork products are not cooked adequately. A holistic One-Health approach, including a better understanding of HEV prevalence in the swine population, would allow implementation of control measures in the meat chain to mitigate the main transmission routes for humans. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España) Junta de Castilla y León Depto. de Sanidad Animal Fac. de Veterinaria TRUE pub 2025-12-19T18:21:29Z 2025-12-19T18:21:29Z 2026 journal article VoR https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/129492 0740-0020 10.1016/j.fm.2025.105011 1095-9998 eng RTA2014-00024- C04 PID2021-123532OB-C31 BU220P24 García, N., Hernández, M., Santamaría-Palacios, J., Martínez, I., Navarro, A., Muñoz-Chimeno, M., Escobar, F., Fongaro, G., Yeramian, N., Trząskowska, M., Avellón, A., Eiros, J. M., Domínguez, L., Valero, A., Goyache, J., & Rodríguez-Lázaro, D. (2026). Hepatitis E virus in pigs at the moment of slaughter in Spain, 2015 and 2017. Food Microbiology, 136, 105011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2025.105011 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access application/pdf Elsevier