Circulação do emergente Hepadnavírus de gatos domésticos na região do Triângulo Mineiro

Abstract

Domestic cat hepadnavirus (DCH) is a DNA virus that belongs to the Hepadnaviridae family, a prototype of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). In humans, HBV is responsible for causing chronic infections with a risk of liver diseases, such as chronic hepatitis and liver carcinoma. In cats, DCH was first reported in 2018 in serum samples in Australia. Subsequently, it was researched in other countries such as Italy (2019), Thailand (2020, 2022 and 2023), Malaysia (2021), Japan (2022), USA (2022), China (2023), Turkey (2023) and Chile ( 2023). As there is no association between hepatitis B and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), in our cats there is evidence to be confirmed of a greater occurrence of DCH in cats infected with the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and/or Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV). In Brazil, there are still no reports on the presence of this virus. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the circulation of Hepadnavirus from domestic cats in cats from the Triângulo Mineiro. We used 334 DNA samples extracted from whole blood from January 2021 to June 2023, belonging to the sample bank of the Veterinary Etiological Investigation Laboratory (LIvE-Vet) at the Federal University of Uberlândia. The blood samples, previously extracted, were subjected to Nested-PCR for universal detection of species belonging to the Hepadnaviridae family. Data related to age, sex, as well as co-infections with feline retroviruses were collected, but no sample was positive for DCH.