HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Noppornpanth, S. Articles by Poovorawan, Y. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Noppornpanth, S. Articles by Poovorawan, Y. Agricola Articles by Noppornpanth, S. Articles by Poovorawan, Y.

Molecular epidemiology of gibbon hepatitis B virus transmission

¹ Viral Hepatitis Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics, Chulalongkorn University and Hospital, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
⁴ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University and Hospital, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
² Inter-Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
³ Institute of Virology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
⁵ Faculty of Veterinary Science, Mahidol University, Nakornpathom, Thailand

Correspondence
Yong Poovorawan
Yong.P{at}chula.ac.th

Although transmission of human hepatitis B virus (HBV) variants to nonhuman primates is well documented, it remains to be elucidated whether nonhuman primate HBV is transmissible to humans. The prevalence and transmission routes of gibbon HBV were analysed in 101 captive gibbons in Thailand. Approximately 40 % of these animals showed at least one marker of HBV infection; 19 animals were chronic HBV carriers, characterized by elevated levels of alanine amino transferase and the presence of HBV DNA. Some of the chronic animals were found to be anti-HBc (HBV core antigen) negative (4 of 19), while precore promoter point mutations (nt 1762 or 1764) were determined in four animals by RFLP analysis. Phylogenetic tree analysis of the complete surface gene sequences revealed that gibbon viruses clustered separately from hepadnaviruses of other hosts. Evidence for horizontal and vertical transmission in captive gibbons was obtained. HBV DNA was also detected in the saliva of HBV carrier gibbons. Although some of the animal caretakers at the Krabok Koo Wildlife Breeding Centre were found to be chronic HBV carriers, genotype and sequence analysis did not reveal any evidence for zoonotic disease transmission.

The GenBank accession numbers of the sequences reported in this paper are AF274495–96, AF274499, AF275378, AF477482–94, AY077735–36 and AF529308–09.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Simmonds and S. Midgley Recombination in the Genesis and Evolution of Hepatitis B Virus Genotypes J. Virol., December 15, 2005; 79(24): 15467 - 15476. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. A. Sall, S. Starkman, J. M. Reynes, S. Lay, T. Nhim, M. Hunt, N. Marx, and P. Simmonds Frequent infection of Hylobates pileatus (pileated gibbon) with species-associated variants of hepatitis B virus in Cambodia J. Gen. Virol., February 1, 2005; 86(2): 333 - 337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				F. Sugauchi, H. Kumada, S. A. Acharya, S. M. Shrestha, M. T. A. Gamutan, M. Khan, R. G. Gish, Y. Tanaka, T. Kato, E. Orito, et al. Epidemiological and sequence differences between two subtypes (Ae and Aa) of hepatitis B virus genotype A J. Gen. Virol., April 1, 2004; 85(4): 811 - 820. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]