Tracing of Selected Viral, Bacterial, and Parasitic Agents on Vegetables and Herbs Originating from Farms and Markets.

Fresh vegetables and herbs are usually prepared and eaten raw without cooking or heating, which leads to a high risk of foodborne infection. The aim of the present study was to assess the contamination of raw vegetables, herbs, and the environment of food chains. Vegetable and herb samples originating both from the Czech Republic as well as from other countries were examined.

Hepatitis E virus in archived sera from wild boars (Sus scrofa), Czech Republic.

To determine whether hepatitis E virus (HEV) was distributed in the population of wild boars in South Moravia between 1990 and 2008, a total of 366 samples of archived sera from wild boars were investigated using serological (commercial ELISA) and molecular (RT-qPCR) methods. A total of 31 (8.5%) wild boars were seropositive, and from two of them, RNA sequences were recovered by nested RT-PCR.

Prevalence of Hepatitis E Virus in Populations of Wild Animals in Comparison with Animals Bred in Game Enclosures.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is now accepted as a zoonotic virus, and domestic pigs, wild boars and deer are recognised as natural reservoirs of the pathogen. In this study, 762 animals (wild boars, fallow deer, red deer, sika deer, roe deer and mouflons) originating from the wild and from game enclosures were tested for the presence of HEV RNA by qRT-PCR. HEV RNA was detected in wild boars (96/450), red deer (2/169), roe deer (1/30) and mouflons (5/39).