Emerging Infectious Diseases (Dec 2023)

Divergent Genotype of Hepatitis A Virus in Alpacas, Bolivia, 2019

  • Talitha Veith,
  • L. Fabian Beltran-Saavedra,
  • Tobias Bleicker,
  • Marie Luisa Schmidt,
  • José L. Mollericona,
  • Kim Grützmacher,
  • Rob Wallace,
  • Jan Felix Drexler,
  • Christian Walzer,
  • Terry C. Jones,
  • Christian Drosten,
  • Victor Max Corman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2912.231123
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 29, no. 12
pp. 2524 – 2527

Abstract

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Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a common human pathogen found exclusively in primates. In a molecular and serologic study of 64 alpacas in Bolivia, we detected RNA of distinct HAV in ≈9% of animals and HAV antibodies in ≈64%. Complete-genome analysis suggests a long association of HAV with alpacas.

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