ABSTRACT
Four hundreds and ninety sheep sera from seven breeds raised at eight counties and one city of Aksu region in Xinjiang were tested by ELISA for the presence of antibodies against hepatitis E virus (HEV), and the positive rate differences were compared based on administrative areas, breeds and age by Chi-square test. The result showed that the general positive rate was 28.98% (142/490), the positive rate were 35.44% (28/79), 29.67% (27/91), 20% (4/20), 40% (12/30), 32.5% (26/80), 38% (19/50), 22.5% (9/40), 8% (4/50) and 26% (13/50) respectively in eight counties and one city, there was a significant difference between Xayar and other administrative areas (P<0.01); there was also a significant difference among age ranges (P<0.01), being 38.75% (31/80) over 2 years old, 15.45% (17/110) below 1 year old; The seroprevalence was still related to breeds, i. e. there was a significant difference between Mongolia sheep and other breeds (P<0.01). From these data, it is confirmed that there is a possibility of previous and potential infection of sheep HEV in Aksu region of Xinjiang Autonomous.