Prevalence of hepatitis E virus antibodies in cattle in Burkina Faso associated with swine mixed farming

ABSTRACT

Background@#Endemic circulation of human-specific hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotypes 1 and 2 may occult the importance of sporadic zoonotic HEV transmissions in Africa. Increasing numbers of studies reporting anti-HEV antibodies in cattle and the discovery of infectious HEV in cow milk has raised public health concern, but cattle exposure has seldom been investigated in Africa. @*Objectives@#This study aimed at investigating the role of cows in the epidemiology of HEV in Burkina Faso and farmers habits in terms of dairy product consumption as a prerequisite to estimate the risk of transmission to humans. @*Methods@#Sera from 475 cattle and 192 pigs were screened for the presence of anti-HEV antibodies while HEV RNA in swine stools was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Data on mixed farming, dairy product consumption and selling habits were gathered through questionnaires. @*Results@#The overall seroprevalence in cattle was 5.1% and herd seroprevalence reached 32.4% (11/34). Herd seropositivity was not associated with husbandry practice or presence of rabbits on the farms. However, herd seropositivity was associated with on-site presence of pigs, 80.7% of which had anti-HEV antibodies. The majority of farmers reported to preferentially consume raw milk based dairy products. @*Conclusions@#Concomitant presence of pigs on cattle farms constitutes a risk factor for HEV exposure of cattle. However, the risk of HEV infections associated with raw cow dairy product consumption is currently considered as low.