ORIGINAL PAPER Molecular Investigation on the Presence of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) in Wild Game in North-Western Italy Laura Serracca 1 • Roberta Battistini 1 • Irene Rossini 1 • Walter Mignone 2 • Simone Peletto 3 • Claudia Boin 3 • Giancarlo Pistone 4 • Riccardo Ercolini 5 • Carlo Ercolini 1 Received: 27 February 2015 / Accepted: 16 May 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract Meat products from HEV-infected reservoir animal species are capable of transmitting HEV to humans and represent a public health concern. Human HEV cases have been linked to the consumption of raw or under- cooked pig liver sausages, pork, and game meats, such as wild boars and deer worldwide. Direct exposure to swine or wild game species might also represent a source of HEV transmission especially for veterinarians, hunters, or butchers. A limited amount of data is available on HEV prevalence in wild boars in Italy and no data are available for other wild game species intended for human con- sumption. In this study, the circulation of HEV in four different animal species hunted in north-western Italy was evaluated to gain insight into the infection levels and the genetic diversity of the virus in such animal populations. Liver samples of 372 wild boars, 30 roe deer, 47 European hares and 38 coypus were analyzed for HEV RNA by real- time RT-PCR; positive samples were then sequenced and submitted to phylogenetic analysis. HEV RNA was de- tected in the livers of 7/372 (1.9 %) wild boars tested, while no sample was positive for roe deer, European hare, and coypu. Phylogenetic analysis showed that wild boar HEV sequences belonged to HEV subtypes 3e, 3c, and 3f. Our results indicate that HEV is circulating only in wild boar among the considered game species in north-western Italy and suggest a potential zoonotic risk related to han- dling and/or consumption of raw or undercooked meat and products made of the liver from this species. Keywords HEV  Wild boar  Real-time RT-PCR  Roe deer  European hare  Coypu Introduction Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a non-enveloped single-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Hepeviridae family. Until now, four genotypes and several subtypes have been defined. Genotypes 1 and 2 are restricted to humans and are often associated with large outbreaks and epidemics of hepatitis E via contaminated water in developing countries. Geno- types 3 and 4 have a wide host range and are capable of causing zoonotic disease in developing and industrialized country (Van der Poel 2014). HEV strains closely related to human HEV have been detected in pigs, deer, and wild boar (Takahashi et al. 2004). More recently, HEV se- quences have also been detected in rats, monkeys, mon- goose, rabbits, ferrets, cutthroat trout, chickens, and bats (Zhao et al. 2009; Johne et al. 2010; Batts et al. 2011; Drexler et al. 2012; Nidaira et al. 2012; Raj et al. 2012). Infections with HEV genotypes 3 and 4 have been linked to the consumption of raw or undercooked meats such as pig liver sausages or game meats (Tei et al. 2003; Takahashi et al. 2004; Li et al. 2005; Colson et al. 2010; Matsuda et al. 2003; Renou et al. 2014; Di Bartolo et al. 2015) Actually, consumption of wild game meat is common in & Laura Serracca laura.serracca@izsto.it 1 IZSPLVA – Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta - Sezione La Spezia, Via degli Stagnoni 96, 19100 La Spezia, Italy 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta - Sezione Imperia, Imperia, Italy 3 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta - Torino, Via Bologna 148, 10154, Turin, Italy 4 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta - Sezione Cuneo, Cuneo, Italy 5 Veterinary Freelancer, Parma, Italy 123 Food Environ Virol DOI 10.1007/s12560-015-9201-9