ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To investigate the prevalence of anti-HEV among swine, sheep and chickens.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Totally 498 sera of swine, sheep and chickens collected from Xingjiang, Guangxi, Guangdong, Beijing and Hebei were detected for the anti-HEV by an enzyme linked immunoassay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The anti-HEV positive rate of swine was 67.53%(104/154), in pigs between 4-5 months of age the rate was 100.00%(9/9) from Xingjiang. The rate in pigs under 3 months of age from Guangxi was 36.00%(9/25) and in pigs older than six months of age was 71.67% (86/120), respectively. The 108 sera of sheep collected from Xingjiang were all negative. The positive rate of chickens was only 1.27% (3/236). The anti-HEV prevalence rates of chickens from Luoding, Shenzhen, Liuzhou, Beijing and Hebei were 4.00%, 1.49%, 1.49%, 0, 0 respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>HEV infection does exist among swine and chickens. The anti-HEV prevalence of swine was the highest among domestic animals. The role of swine and chickens in transmission of HEV needs to be further studied.</p>