Inactivation of infectious hepatitis E virus present in commercial pig livers sold in local grocery stores in the United States

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic pathogen and pigs are a known reservoir. Recently we showed that approximately 11% of commercial pig livers sold in local U.S. grocery stores for food consumptions are contaminated by infectious HEV. In this study, a swine bioassay was used to determine if the i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of food microbiology 2008-03, Vol.123 (1), p.32-37
Main Authors: Feagins, A.R., Opriessnig, T., Guenette, D.K., Halbur, P.G., Meng, X.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
bioassays
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Assay
commercial farms
Commercial pig liver
Consumer Product Safety
cooking
disease control
disease incidence
Disease Reservoirs - veterinary
Disease Reservoirs - virology
food contamination
Food Contamination - analysis
Food Handling - methods
Food industries
Food microbiology
food pathogens
food quality
Food safety
foodborne illness
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
grocery stores
Hepatitis E - transmission
Hepatitis E - veterinary
Hepatitis E virus
Hepatitis E virus - genetics
Hepatitis E virus - isolation & purification
Hepatitis E virus - pathogenicity
HEV
Humans
Hygiene and safety
Inactivation
Liver - virology
livers as food
microbial activity
microbial contamination
pathogen survival
Random Allocation
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
RNA, Viral - chemistry
RNA, Viral - genetics
Swine
swine diseases
United States
virus inactivation
virus transmission
zoonoses
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic pathogen and pigs are a known reservoir. Recently we showed that approximately 11% of commercial pig livers sold in local U.S. grocery stores for food consumptions are contaminated by infectious HEV. In this study, a swine bioassay was used to determine if the infectious HEV in contaminated commercial pig livers could be inactivated by traditional cooking methods. Group 1 pigs ( n = 5) were each inoculated intravenously (I.V.) with a HEV-negative liver homogenate as negative controls, group 2 pigs ( n = 5) were each inoculated I.V. with a pool of two HEV-positive pig liver homogenates as positive controls, groups 3, 4 and 5 pigs ( n = 5, each group) were each inoculated I.V. with a pool of homogenates of two HEV-positive livers incubated at 56 °C for 1 h, stir-fried at 191 °C (internal temperature of 71 °C) for 5 min or boiled in water for 5 min, respectively. As expected, the group 2 positive control pigs all became infected whereas the group 1 negative control pigs remained negative. Four of the five pigs inoculated with HEV-positive liver homogenates incubated at 56 °C for 1 h also became infected. However, pigs in groups 4 and 5 did not become infected. The results indicated that HEV in contaminated commercial pig livers can be effectively inactivated if cooked properly, although incubation at 56 °C for 1 h cannot inactivate the virus. Thus, to reduce the risk of food-borne HEV transmission, pig livers must be thoroughly cooked.
ISSN:0168-1605
1879-3460
DOI:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2007.11.068