Identification of domestic cat hepadnavirus from a cat blood sample in Japan
Kazuki Takahashi, Yasuyuki Kaneko, Akiko SHIBANAI, Shushi Yamamoto, Ayana KATAGIRI, Tatsuyuki Osuga, Yoshiyuki Inoue, Kohei KURODA, Mika Tanabe, Tamaki Okabayashi, Kiyokazu Naganobu, Isao MINOBE, Akatsuki Saito
Abstract
The hepatitis B virus (Hepadnaviridae) induces chronic hepatitis and hepatic cancer in humans. A novel domestic cat hepadnavirus (DCH) was recently identified in several countries, however, the DCH infection status of cats in Japan is unknown. Therefore, we investigated the DCH infection rate of 139 cat samples collected in Japan. We identified one positive blood sample (0.78%) from a 17-year-old female cat with chronically elevated alanine aminotransferase. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the DCH strain identified in this study is genetically different from strains in other countries. Further investigations are required to elucidate the evolution of DCH and the impact of DCH infection on hepatic diseases in domestic cats.