Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection as a zoonotic disease virus has been thoroughly investigated in pigs around the world, but there have been few studies in pet animals. Although molecular and serological evidence suggests that numerous other animal species may act as HEV hosts in industrialized countries, domestic pigs and wild boars are the main reservoirs of HEV genotypes 3 and 4 for human infections. In this study, the sera of 91 household cats from Türkiye were studied by using serological (new generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA)) and molecular methods. HEV antibodies were determined with an overall prevalence of 5.4%. The seropositive distributions were (3.2%) in the 0-2 age group, 1 (1.09%) in the 2-8 age group, and 1 (1.09%) in the cats older than 8 years, despite the fact that there was no statistically significant difference across age and sex groups (p > 0.05). Viral RNA was not detected in the sera of the household cats using hemi-nested and nested RT-PCR. These findings show that cats in Türkiye have a low seroprevalence of HEV. Nevertheless, it is important in terms of detecting the presence of HEV antibodies in cats for the first time in Türkiye. More research is required to determine the effects of viruses belonging to the Hepeviridae family on cats, as well as their transmission to humans.
Keywords: Domestic cats; HEV antibodies; Hepatitis E virus; Türkiye; Zoonotic.
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