Novel hepatitis virus isolated from chickens.

The cause of an emerging new disease linked with the hepatitis-splenomegaly syndrome in chickens in North America has been recently identified as a new virus related to the human hepatitis E virus (HEV). The virus was isolated from bile samples of chickens with HS syndrome and was found to share similar genomic organization and significant sequence identity with HEV. Although the formal classification and naming of the new virus is yet to be made, the virus has been tentatively named avian HEV.

Credit for the discovery of HEV goes to Haqshenas et al at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, College of veterinary medicine, Virginia. On electron microscopic examination the researchers have observed that avian HEV is a non-enveloped virus particle of 30-35 nm in diameter. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that avian HEV is genetically related to, but distinct from, other known HEV strains.

Reference for further reading:
J Gen Virol 2001 Oct;82(Pt 10):2449-62. Genetic identification and characterization of a novel virus related to human hepatitis E virus from chickens with hepatitis-splenomegaly syndrome in the United States.Haqshenas G, Shivaprasad HL, Woolcock PR, Read DH, Meng XJ. Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1410 Price's Fork Road, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0342, USA.