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Volume 29, Number 9—September 2023
Dispatch

Rat Hepatitis E Virus in Norway Rats, Ontario, Canada, 2018–2021

Sarah J. RobinsonComments to Author , Jamie Borlang, Chelsea G. Himsworth, David L. Pearl, J. Scott Weese, Antonia Dibernardo, Carla Osiowy, Neda Nasheri, and Claire M. Jardine
Author affiliations: University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada (S.J. Robinson, D.L. Pearl, J.S. Weese, C.M. Jardine); Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (J. Borlang, A. Dibernardo, C. Osiowy); University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (C.G. Himsworth); Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (N. Nasheri); University of Ottawa, Ottawa (N. Nasheri); Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, Guelph (C.M. Jardine)

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Figure 2

Phylogenetic tree based on the nucleotide alignment of hepatitis E virus (HEV) sequences from rats submitted by pest control professionals in southern Ontario, Canada, during November 2018–June 2021 (black dots), and select reference sequences from other studies in GenBank (accession numbers provided). Maximum-likelihood analysis of a 283-nt fragment of the RNA dependent RNA polymerase of open reading frame 1 was performed by the general time reversible plus gamma plus invariant sites substitution model as determined for the alignment by Smart Model Selection (12). Tree construction was optimized by nearest neighbor interchange and subtree pruning and regrafting with branch support computed by the approximate likelihood-ratio test based on a Shimodaira-Hasegawa-like procedure (13). Only bootstrap values >70% are shown. Scale bar indicates the number of nucleotide substitutions per site. DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Figure 2. Phylogenetic tree based on the nucleotide alignment of hepatitis E virus (HEV) sequences from rats submitted by pest control professionals in southern Ontario, Canada, during November 2018–June 2021 (black dots), and select reference sequences from other studies in GenBank (accession numbers provided). Maximum-likelihood analysis of a 283-nt fragment of the RNA dependent RNA polymerase of open reading frame 1 was performed by the general time reversible plus gamma plus invariant sites substitution model as determined for the alignment by Smart Model Selection (12). Tree construction was optimized by nearest neighbor interchange and subtree pruning and regrafting with branch support computed by the approximate likelihood-ratio test based on a Shimodaira-Hasegawa-like procedure (13). Only bootstrap values >70% are shown. Scale bar indicates the number of nucleotide substitutions per site. DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Main Article

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