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Quantitative risk assessment of hepatitis E virus: modelling the occurrence of viraemic pigs and the presence of the virus in organs of food safety interest

Crotta, M; Lavazza, A; Mateus, A L P; Guitian, J

Authors

M Crotta

A Lavazza

A L P Mateus

J Guitian



Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic pathogen with consumption of pork and derived products identified in different countries as a risk factor for human exposure to HEV. Great efforts have been made to understand the dynamics of virus transmission within domestic swine populations through modelling. However, from a food safety prospective, it is critical to integrate the parameters involved in the transmission dynamics with those governing the actual presence of HEV in the bloodstream, the liver, gallbladder or faeces. To date, several aspects related to the pathogenesis of the disease are still unknown or characterized by significant levels of uncertainty, making this conjunction challenging. We used published serological data obtained from pigs in a farrow-to-finish farm to implement an Immune-Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (MSIR) model reproducing the on-farm dynamics that lead to the occurrence of viraemic pigs at slaughter. Expert opinion on the length of time infectious HEV can be detected in liver, gallbladder/bile and faeces after recovery from viraemic status were used to inform a stochastic model aimed at estimating the expected proportion of viraemic pigs, pigs with infectious HEV in liver, gallbladder/bile and faeces entering the slaughterhouse. To simulate the potential effect of on-farm mitigation strategies, we estimated the changes in outcomes of interest as a function of variations in the baseline transmission parameters. The model predicted a proportion of viraemic pigs entering the slaughterhouse of 13.8% while the proportions of, and ranged from 13.8% to 94.4%, 13.8% to 94.7% and from 25.3% to 30.8% respectively, due to the uncertainty surrounding the experts’ opinions. Variations in MSIR model’s parameters alert of the need to carefully consider the application of mitigation strategies aimed at delaying the decay of maternal immunity or the peak of the within herd transmission. When the rate of decay of maternal immunity and the transmission rate were decreased between 80% and 5% and 40% and 5% from the baseline values respectively, adverse effects on were observed. The model highlights the relevance of specific aspects in the pathogenesis of the disease from a food safety prospective and it was developed to be easily reproducible and updatable as soon as accurate data becomes available. As presented, the model can be directly connected to existing or future pig-related models to estimate the significance of the identified parameters on the risk of human exposure to HEV through consumption of pork products.

Citation

Crotta, M., Lavazza, A., Mateus, A. L. P., & Guitian, J. (2018). Quantitative risk assessment of hepatitis E virus: modelling the occurrence of viraemic pigs and the presence of the virus in organs of food safety interest. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mran.2018.02.001

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 7, 2018
Publication Date Feb 9, 2018
Deposit Date Feb 15, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 1, 2019
Journal Microbial Risk Analysis
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 9
Pages 64-71
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mran.2018.02.001
Public URL https://rvc-repository.worktribe.com/output/1388768

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