Global Prevalence of RNA-Positive Horses for Hepacivirus (EqHV): Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Journal of equine veterinary science 2022 Jul

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Equine hepacivirus (EqHV) belongs to the Flaviviridae family, genus Hepacivirus and has the greatest genomic identity with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), one of the main causes of chronic liver disease in humans. Due to the limited applicability of studies of HCV in animal hosts, the interest in studies of characterization of viral homologues has been growing. For this reason, we performed a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis of the prevalence of EqHV and genetic sequencing studies. Twenty-three studies from four different continents were analyzed. The OR meta-analysis (0.98; 95% CI = 0.69-1.39) showed no influence of sex (female or male) on the risk of infection. Variables associated with EqHV infection were indirectly related to animal management such as transport, reproductive practices, among others. The combined prevalence of positive animals was 7.88% (95% CI = 5.23-11.69%), with the highest proportions in Asia (16.13%; 95% CI = 7.79-30.43%), followed by South America (12.03%; 95% CI = 9.58-15.01%), Africa (8.69%; 95% CI = 6.71-11.20%), and Europe (3.63%; 95% CI = 2.10-6.22%). However, these results represent the regional stratification of the epidemiological studies for EqHV published to date and, therefore, cannot extrapolate to determine the continental prevalence of EqHV. It is therefore important to update the systematic review as further research becomes available. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Camila de Sousa Bezerra, Clécio Henrique Limeira, Denize Monteiro Dos Anjos, Denise Batista Nogueira, Davidianne de Andrade Morais, Brunna Muniz Rodrigues Falcão, Clebert José Alves, Carolina de Sousa Américo Batista Santos, Maria Luana Cristiny Rodrigues Silva, Sérgio Santos de Azevedo. Global Prevalence of RNA-Positive Horses for Hepacivirus (EqHV): Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of equine veterinary science. 2022 Jul;114:104003