Abstract:
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging zoonotic pathogen that exhibits great host diversity. The primary means of transmission of the virus in low- and middle-income countries is contaminated water, often due to a lack of access to proper
sanitation, which leads to faecal contamination of water sources. Environmental surveillance is an important tool that can
be used to monitor virus circulation and as an early warning system for outbreaks. This study was conducted to determine
the prevalence and genetic diversity of HEV in wastewater, surface water (rivers and standpipe/ablution water), and effluent
from a piggery in South Africa. A total of 536 water samples were screened for HEV using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Overall, 21.8% (117/536) of the wastewater, river, and ablution water samples tested positive for
HEV, whereas 74.4% (29/39) of the samples from the piggery tested positive. Genotyping revealed sequences belonging to
HEV genotypes 3 (98%, 53/54) and 4 (2%, 1/54), with subtypes 3c, 3f, and 4b being identified.
