Occurrence of Hepatitis E Virus in Regionally Produced Meat Products and the Meat Processing Environment

Introduction: Identification of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) strains in food producing animals and in food originated from infected animals makes the issue of public health protection and food safety more important. Although the presence of the virus has been shown in raw meat products, its occurrence in ready-to-eat (RTE) pork meat and variety meat products subjected to low or moderate heat treatment, as well as in meat processing environment has not been investigated.

Purpose: This study was conducted to detect HEV and viral indicators of fecal contamination in RTE pork meat products and meat processing environment. Additionally, an identification of possible routes of food contamination by viruses during its production was investigated.

Methods: In total, 75 samples of RTE pork meat products representing three food categories (white sausage, black pudding, and pie), 42 liver samples as incoming raw material, and 21 swabs taken from food contact surfaces along meat processing were tested for the presence of HEV and porcine adenovirus (pAdV), as the index virus of faecal contamination. In addition, 10 fecal samples from slaughtered pigs were included in the analyses. After extraction and isolation of viral nucleic acids (ISO/TS method), viruses were detected using duplex real-time PCRs with incorporated internal amplification controls.

Results: HEV RNA was not detected in any of the tested food, liver, or swab samples except from one fecal sample; whereas, pAdV was found in white sausage (4 of 25), black pudding (8 of 25), pie (2 of 25), swab sample (1 of 21), and in all animal faeces.

Significance: The presence of pAdV in tested food could indicate the possiblity that HEV survives the heat treatment process. Nevertheless, the risk of foodborne HEV infection due to the consumption of regionally produced RTE pork meat and variety meat products is considered negligible. Environmental surfaces do not play a significant role in food contamination during production and processing.