Hepatitis E virus: exposure and sharing dynamics in environments and sectors (VHEEP)

2021-2023 pathfinder project

Background and challenges

Hepatitis E is an emerging public health problem, but it is also an animal and environmental health problem. Often asymptomatic in humans in its acute form, hepatitis E virus (HEV) can nevertheless cause symptoms of jaundice, anorexia, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever or hepatomegaly (enlargement of the liver). The routes of transmission are multiple (consumption of products, water, contact, including human-animal contact), the virus being highly resistant in the environment and affecting many wild and domestic animal species. The main reservoir of the disease for humans in industrialised countries is the pig reservoir, and liver-based charcuterie products are a major source of contamination. The growing problem of HEV raises questions about the evolution of processing and consumption practices (cooking, raw), and in particular the need to produce and certify HEV-free products.

HEV is therefore a potential indicator of a set of complex relationships in a socio-pathosystem, the analysis of which involves an interdisciplinary approach, between eco-epidemiology and zootechnics (studies of practices influencing contacts between pigs and wild boars, for example), molecular epidemiology (highlighting the sharing and distribution of strains between reservoirs and humans), geography of processing practices (mixtures of livers, origin of the raw material), consumption (evolution of practices and perceptions of consumers of liver sausages) and regulations (production standards, risk prevention messages, etc.).

Goals

The project proposes to explore how a socio-pathosystem crosses food systems ("chains" of charcuterie and filtering animals), through an integrative approach that combines a "horizontal" perspective (the pathogen between the farms and the environment) and a "vertical" perspective (the pathogen in the food chain). By tracing "HEV networks", the project is therefore at the heart of the relationship between productive systems and the environment, questioning the flows of the virus between compartments (the meaning of which is not well known) and the mechanisms that direct them (practices of the actors).

The project focuses on Corsica, an area of HEV hyper-endemicity, which has one of the highest hospitalization rates in mainland France.

INRAE units involved

• Laboratoire de recherche sur le développement de l'élevage
• UMR Virologie
• Systèmes d'élevages méditerranéens et tropicaux
• UMR Animal, Santé, Territoires, Risques, Ecosystèmes