Seal liver cells infected with phopivirusCOLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
A genetic analysis of viruses carried by seals has provided the first evidence that a hepatitis A–like virus, which has so far only been found to infect primates, may have originated in a different host. The analysis, which appeared in mBio yesterday (August 25), describes a new virus, dubbed “phopivirus,” which is the closest known phylogenetic relative to the human hepatitis A virus and has tropism for liver.
“Our data suggest that hepatitis A and this new virus share a common ancestor, which means that a spillover event must have occurred at some point in the past,” study coauthor Simon Anthony, an epidemiologist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said in a statement. “It raises the question of whether hepatitis A originated ...
