Introgressed Animal Schistosomes Schistosoma curassoni and S. bovis Naturally Infecting Humans

net) with the maximum-likelihood algorithm and a boot-strap of 1,000 replicates, we constructed a phylogenetic tree (online Technical Appendix Figure). All 8 sequences clustered within subtype 4d of HEV. The sequences were similar to each other (95.5%–99.8% similarity in nucleotide sequence) and similar to sequences reported for other cattle (83.3%–85.3%; online Technical Appendix Figure). Moreover , these sequences shared 96.1%–96.6% similarity with a human HEV strain (GenBank accession no. KC163335) from the Yantai Prefecture in 2012 and 95.7%–97.9% similarity with a swine strain (GenBank accession no. KF176351) isolated in Shandong Province the same year. Our data strongly indicate that HEV infection occurs in yellow cattle and that they could also play a role as a reservoir of HEV. Because these animals serve mainly as a source of food, consumption of undercooked meat from yellow cattle, similar to pork, might also contribute to the transmission of HEV to humans. Additionally, we also detected HEV RNA in 8 of 70 sheep (online Technical Appendix Table 2). Eight sequences from yellow cattle had 95.1%–99.8% nt homology with 8 sheep-derived HEV strains, possibly because mixed raising of domestic livestock is popular in this region. Our finding of high sequence similarity between yellow cattle, sheep, swine, and human populations suggests a complicated interspecies transmission of HEV occurred in this province. Further studies are required to evaluate the contribution of the yellow cattle reservoir to human HEV infection. Acknowledgments We thank our colleagues at the China CDC at the prefectural and county level for sample collection in this study. infectious hepatitis E virus into milk in cows imposes high risks of zoonosis. Effect of very fast chilling and aging time on ultra-structure and meat quality characteristics of Chinese yellow cattle M. longissimus lumborum. Prevalence, isolation, and partial sequence analysis of hepatitis E virus from domestic animals in China. application of a set of universal PCR primers for genotyping of hepatitis E virus [in Chinese]. To the Editor: Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by infection with parasitic worms (schistosomes), is a neglected tropical disease across many parts of the world. Numbers of infected livestock are unknown, but >250 million persons are infected; the greatest number of cases are in sub-Saharan Africa (1). Schistosome eggs are ex-creted through urine or feces, depending on the species, and hatch into miracidia upon contact with freshwater. Larvae are transmitted to the mammalian host indirectly through a molluscan intermediate host. Goals to eliminate …