Investigation article published in Frontiers in Microbiology

July 9^th, 2021

The role of ticks in the maintenance and spread of emerging viral zoonotic pathogens, whose main hosts are wildlife species, is well known (Ruiz-Fons et al., 2008; Baneth, 2014; Madison-Antenucci et al., 2020). Of special concern are wild ungulates (deer and wild swine), species with wide distribution and high density, which allow the spread of tick-borne viruses in Europe (Kriz et al., 2014). In this sense, viruses belonging to families Flaviviridae (tick-borne encephalitis), Nairoviridae (Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever), and Phenuiviridae (severe fever with thrombocytopenia) have emerged in several European countries (Madison-Antenucci et al., 2020), such as Spain and the Czechia (Kriz et al., 2014; Moraga-Fernández et al., 2020), spread by wild boar. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of ticks in maintaining other highly prevalent zoonotic viruses in wildlife, such as hepatitis E virus (HEV), which do not require ticks for transmission between animals and humans.

Hepatitis E virus genotypes 3 and 4 have been detected in a great variety of domestic and wild mammals, with suids considered as the main host (Wang and Meng, 2021), and the main transmission route being the consumption of raw or undercooked meat or organs (Faber et al., 2018). Feral ungulates, principally wild boar (Sus scrofa), constitute the main wild reservoir of the virus, with a reported prevalence of infection of 20% (Rivero-Juarez et al., 2018), which means that wild boar meat consumption is an important route of transmission in Europe (Faber et al., 2018). Even though the main route of HEV transmission in wild boar is not well understood, it has been suggested that it could be related to direct contact between the animals and other species, including other sympatric species (deer and fallow deer) and pigs, or by indirect contact spread through feces (Rivero-Juarez et al., 2018). In contrast to other highly prevalent viruses in wild boar, there are no studies evaluating the presence of HEV in ticks feeding on this species. Information on this point is of great interest with respect to increasing knowledge about HEV epidemiology

Rivero-Juarez A., Risalde MA., Gortazar C., Lopez-Lopez P., Barasona JA., Frias M., Caballero-Gomez J., de la Fuente JM. and Rivero A.

Detection of Hepatitis E Virus in Hyalomma lusitanicum Ticks Feeding on Wild Boars

Detection of Hepatitis E Virus in Hyalomma lusitanicum Ticks Feeding on Wild Boars

	Departamento de Anatomía y Anatomía Patológica Comparadas. Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad de Córdoba (UCO).
	Unidad de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía de Córdoba. Instituto Maimonides de Investigación Biomédica de Cordoba.
	Sanidad y Biotecnología (SaBio). Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM). Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha (JCCM).
	Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET). Universidad Complutense (UCM).
	Departamento de Sanidad Animal. Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad Complutense (UCM).
	Departamento de Sanidad Animal. Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad de Córdoba (UCO).
	Departament of Veterinary Pathobiology. Center for Veterinary Health Sciences (CVHS). Oklahoma State University (OSU).